Acting on information from Ashok Chaudhari,an alleged Ravi Pujari aide arrested in September,the Mumbai Police on Monday night arrested four persons,who allegedly have links with the Ravi Pujari gang. The police also seized a pistol,a chopper,a knife and rope and a car from them. The arrested have been identified as Suresh Patkar alias Nana (49),Gangadharan Michael Anthony (28),Rajkumar Kanojia alias Babloo (22) and Vinod Bhaskar alias Karela (30). The four had met up at Swami Samarth Nagar to commit a robbery. Acting on a tip-off,we laid a trap and managed to nab them when they reached the place. We also seized some gold jewellery,mobile phones and Rs 1 lakh in cash from them. During the interrogation,we discovered that the same gang had robbed Rs 18 lakh from Shubham Jewellers at Vasai on September 16. All the four have been involved in robberies across the state and used to steal vehicles to use as getaway vehicles after committing robberies, Additional Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta said. Investigations have also revealed that Patkar,who had been nicknamed Nana for his resemblance to Bollywood actor Nana Patekar,also recruited those who were fresh out of jails to commit robberies. Police Sub Inspector Nitin Patil said,Nana would often go out in disguise to identify jewellery shops where robberies can be committed. He then inform his recruits about it and get a commission after the loot. At time,Nana also would participate in robberies. The four were produced before a magistrate and were remanded in police custody till October 8. We are conducting enquiries to trace other members of the Pujari gang and hopefully shall be making more arrests in near future. Further enquiries are on, said Gupta.
