12/05/2017
*Two cops get 10 years' jail for jewellery heist*
MUMBAI: A sessions court on Thursday convicted and sentenced ten men, including a sub-inspector and a police constable, to ten years' imprisonment for robbing a courier service vehicle of jewellery worth Rs 6 crore in 2013. The daring dacoity was cracked within a week after cops suspected an inside job and zeroed in on the courier service driver, Khusbuddin Shaikh (29) whose arrest, in turn, led them to all the other accused who had shared the loot.
Sessions judge P S Tarare found Khusbuddin, his brother Nasim Shaikh (30), sub-inspector Mahadev Dengale (29) who is attached to Marol police training institute, constable Mayur Dangde (30), Bhagaji Zaware (38), a DCP's driver, and 5 others guilty of dacoity and criminal conspiracy.
Apart from the courier service driver, his brother, two policemen and a DCP's driver, the sessions court sentenced Dayanand Salve (36), Abhijit Salunkhe (28), Sanjay Dengale (34), Michel Argilo (29) and Subhash Shirwale (27). All the ten convicts were also fined Rs 20,000 each.
Police inspector Rajendra Kane, who investigated the case, said cops first suspected Khusbuddin. "We then kept a watch on him and found his movements to be suspicious. His call data records were also examined and we found that he had been in touch with the others. On questioning, he told us about the plan hatched with his brother Nasim. It was Nasim's idea to rope in cops," said Kane.
Court constable Santosh Ghadigaonkarsaid around 37 witnesses deposed in the case, including the courier agency's manager and panch witnesses who were present when the jewellery was recovered. "Call data records and the test identification parade of the accused were also crucial pieces of evidence," said Kane.
The FIR was registered at Bandra police station by the courier agency's manager.
Cops said on November 14, 2013, the manager had collected boxes containing the jewellery from Kalbadevi in a car. The boxes were to be sent to Delhi, Jaipur and Chennai. Other than the manager, the vehicle had driver Khusbuddin and two others. The car was headed to the airport around 10.45pm and had crossed to the Bandra side of the sea link when a taxi overtook it and forced it to stop. The taxi had four persons-Dengale and Dange in uniform, and Salunkhe and Zavare, who was a DCP's driver.
Dengale stayed inside the cab while Dangde approached Khushbuddin and reprimanded him for driving at high speed and slapped him. The FIR further stated that Khusbuddin then came out of his car. Salunkhe and Zaware also alighted from the taxi and took away the manager's phone.
It was further alleged that Mahadev, too, got out off the cab and threatened the manager who was then asked to go to the police chowky. Mahadev asked his group to follow him to the nearby Kherwadi police station. The officer left in the car with the valuables and drove towards Kherwadi. Dangde and the others bundled the courier staffers into a cab, and the accused later dispersed in an auto and a taxi. The manager then realised they had been duped by the cops who had decamped with the car containing the jewellery.
After the incident, the manager and Khusbuddin went to the police. The accused dumped the car in Dharavi and went to a friend's flat in Vashi. Khusbuddin joined them there and the loot was divided.
After nabbing Nasim, cops got to know that he had contacted his acquaintance Zaware who lived in Navi Mumbai. He, in turn, drew in his constable friend Dangde. The constable then asked his Pune friend Salunkhe to arrange for men. Besides three others, Salunkhe roped in sub-inspector Dengale who he knew through the latter's relatives.
Subsequently, all the accused were nabbed Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune.
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