Truck owner held for cheating builder

Police said Wankhede had allegedly made compartments in his truck in which he used to fill sand equal to the weight of steel being stolen. So the truck used to weigh the same on weighing bridge.

Police said Shaikh had placed order for 12 tonnes of steel at Vijay Laxmi Steel firm in Mundhwa for construction of a school at Pashan. The firm despatched a truck filled with steel on April 7. The firm contacted Shaikh asking him to weigh the truck and then accept the order.

He got the truck weighed at Mundhwa and Sutarwadi. It was found that steel in the truck was less by about 3 to 3.5 tonnes than the order placed. So after the steel was delivered at his construction site,Shaikh decided to weigh the empty truck. But the truck driver fled. Shaikh informed the steel firm authorities and then lodged a complaint at the Crime Branch of Pune police. Investigation revealed that truck owner Wankhede conspired with driver Kantilal Garaje to cheat the builders.

When the truck reached Shikrapur,steel was loaded into another truck with a duplicate number plate. The racketeers had made cavities in these trucks for filling sand. Now,some steel was separated before loading into another truck and sand equal to its weight was filled in the cavities because of which the weight of the truck remained the same. The racketeers used to sell the stolen steel,” said inspector Bhanupratap Barge.

“Search is on for driver Garaje. Wankhede owns two trucks. The steel in this case wad being transported in truck with registration number MH 21 1669. The steel was loaded into Wankhede’s truck with number MH 14 6442 which had cavities for filling sand and its number plate was changed to MH 21 1669,” said Barge.

“Investigation so far revealed that Wankhede was cheating the builders in this manner for the last one-and-a-half years. There are more truck owners and drivers operating a similar racket. They are cheating the builders to the tune of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh daily,” he added.