Six arrested for kidnapping, dacoity on Mumbai-Goa highway

The Pen police in Raigad arrested a gang of six for kidnapping and dacoity after they robbed ₹40 lakh worth truck of plastic raw materials along the Mumbai Goa Highway. The accused held the truck occupants hostage after assaulting them and drove them around for three hours before dumping them along the highway.

On September 14, Chandrakant Gunge, 32 was transporting plastic beads for a plastics company in Chennai in a 14-wheeler truck along the Mumbai-Goa highway. At around 7.30 pm, a group of nine persons travelling in an SUV overtook Gunge’s truck near Gagode Khind, Pen.

The men forced into the truck and beat up Gunge and two attendants. After robbing them of cash and mobile phones, they bundled them into the car.

“They tied up the three and blindfolded them. The accused drove along the highway for over three hours and threw them around 15km away in Eerwadi along the Mumbai-Goa Highway,” said an officer.

The police found the empty truck dumped in the Malegaon Taluka police jurisdiction, Nashik. Subsequently, one of the accused, Sadanand Amritka was caught after which five others were also nabbed from Nashik and Mumbai. The police recovered the stolen plastic from Nashik.

“So far, we have arrested six men and three more are wanted,” said Anil Paraskar, superintendent of police, Raigad.

The gang previously stole trucks of soaps or groceries. They would target any truck and then find customers as per their heist bounty. The accused had rented the SUV car.

The other accused have been identified as Mumbai residents – Shahanshah Gulhasan, 20, Hansraj Munneshwar, 48, Mohammed Zakir Iliyas, 20, -- Nashik resident Roshan Khabia, 33 and Mohammed Javir Shaikh, 28, a resident of Uttar Pradesh.