Seven held in month-old armed robbery case

According to Crime Branch officers, the doctor runs a hospital in Jogeshwari and stays with his elderly parents, his wife and his sister in a flat in the same building as the hospital.

At around 4:00 pm on July 11, two men rang the doorbell posing as courier boys and as soon as the doctor’s sister opened the door, the duo, along with four others, barged inside. Armed with revolvers and choppers, the six robbers bound and gagged all the members of the family, after which they proceeded to ransack the house. They decamped with cash and valuables worth Rs 26 lakh.  A complaint was subsequently registered with the Jogeshwari police under the Indian Penal Code as well as the Arms Act.

The Crime Branch’s Unit VIII, which was also conducting parallel inquiries into the incident, received information from reliable sources that the robbery had been committed by an Ashwin Naik gang member. Working further on this angle, the Crime Branch received a tip off that the accused would be coming to Aarsa Hotel in Andheri on Tuesday and laid a trap accordingly, and detained six people from the spot, identified as Sudhir Shinde (43), Pravin Sawant (30), Sahil Sheikh (35). “The results of the interrogation of the trio led us to the remaining accused, identified as Rakesh Palav (23), Ganesh Sawant (33), Suryakant Mhasne (37) and Deepak Gurav (36). Ganesh Sawant was working in the hospital run by the doctor, and was aware of the doctor’s income.

He got in touch with some members of the gang and told them that his employer was a good target for a robbery, and also provided details like his address,” said a Crime Branch officer.The officer added that Shinde is a history sheeter and has a lengthy criminal record.

“ He has a total of 21 cases registered against him, which include murder, robbery and extortion, and has been externed under the TADA and the MPDA acts in the part. We are interrogating him further as we believe he could also be behind several other robberies in this area,” the officer said.
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