Pune: The district rural police on Tuesday busted a three-member highway robbers’ gang from Ahilyanagar and solved six cases.The police also recovered gold jewellery and a motorcycle, collectively worth Rs5.62 lakh. The gang was active on the Pune-Nagar highway between Ranjangaon and Shikrapur and targeted passengers either sleeping in their vehicles or when they halted, police said.Inspector Avinash Shilimkar of the Pune Rural police said the police arrested Akash Shinde (30), Mahesh Shinde (32) and Rahul Pawar (30), all from Velad village in Ahilyanagar district. “We have recovered 7.5 tolas of gold jewellery and a motorcycle from them,” Shilimkar said. The officer said all the accused are criminals on police records and have cases of dacoity and robberies registered against them.On Oct 24, a medical practitioner (46) from Ahilynagar and his four friends were on their way for a picnic to Konkan. Around 3.30am, they stopped along the Pune-Nagar highway near Shirur. Three unknown individuals threatened them with billhooks and demanded all their valuables. When the medical practitioner and his friends resisted, the trio beat them up and robbed valuables worth Rs 3.2 lakh.Inspector Avinash Shilimkar of the Pune Rural police said prior to the Oct incident, four cases of robberies were reported on the same stretch. “The modus operandi of all these robberies was the same. They targeted passengers who had stopped along the highway for some reason. The robbers used billhooks to threaten motorists and a motorcycle to drive away,” Shilimkar said.The officer said his team and Shikrapur police checked CCTV footage covering a stretch of 125 km and identified the motorcycle. “The motorcycle headed towards Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district. With the help of local informers, we traced and nabbed the trio,” the officer said.
