He breached Army security for 12 years!

PUNE, Oct 12: Donning a soldier's stolen uniform, 35-year-old Kailash Sudan Mane alias Ashok Nana Chavan committed petty thefts at will. ...

PUNE, Oct 12: Donning a soldier8217;s stolen uniform, 35-year-old Kailash Sudan Mane alias Ashok Nana Chavan committed petty thefts at will. That too at the heavily protected campuses of various military establishments. And for as many 12 years!

Chavan had served in the Army as a washerman before being dismissed. He successfully hid his court-martial and dismissal from the services from everybody, including his wife and two children.

His unhindered activities came to light only after a team of Khadki police arrested him on theft charges. Inspector in-charge of Khadki police station V D Khanse and sub-inspector K S Patil, who laid Chavan8217;s modus operandi bare, said the conman has admitted to having committed 14 thefts on the campuses of various military establishments in Pune and Stolen booty collectively worth over Rs 29,000 has already been seized from him.

According to inspector Khanse, Chavan had committed seven thefts in Khadki area, one in Yerawada and four at Bhingar in Ahmednagar. Chavan struck at the residential quarters of defence personnel at various military establishments mainly on Saturday and Monday evenings as he knew the occupants would be busy watching the movies screened by the defence officials for jawans and their families, Khanse said.

Chavan would allegedly forced entry into the residential quarters of his victims after breaking the locks with a crowbar. He allegedly used to sell off the stolen booty to one of his acquaintances at Ahmednagar.

Chavan stole a soldier8217;s uniform from a barrack at Bombay Engineering Group at Khadki last month and started wearing it to get unobstructed entry inside various military campuses, according to Khanse.

Chavan was returning home after targeting a milk vending stall at Range Hills on the night of September 19 when he was arrested by a police party patrolling the area near Sarvatra Vihar Colony. The cash stolen from the milk vending stall and a crowbar were recovered from him on the spot.