Six held for looting valuables worth Rs 5 crore

Six persons, including a State Reserve Police (SRP) constable, were today arrested, for allegedly stealing gold and silver articles worth Rs 5 crore from a mini-truck, police said.
The articles were stolen from a mini-truck on Friday night and within 48 hours, the six accused were apprehended by the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of the Ahmedabad rural police from different locations, a LCB release said.
Articles worth Rs 3.5 crore were recovered from the accused. Among the six accused is Sunil Pawar (48), who was once part of a gang run by underworld gangster Chhota Rajan's henchman O P Singh, it said.

The other accused are SRP constable Ghela Bharwad (36), his close relative and leader of Bharwad gang Sura Bharwad (34), Kana Bharwad (31), Khoda Bharwad (30) and Bhala Bharwad (32).
The owner of a courier firm 'Ishwar Bechar Angadia' had approached police on Friday night after he failed to contact the driver as well as the gunman, it said.
The owner suspected that something was wrong, as the truck's GPS signal showed that it was stationed at an isolated place instead of moving towards it's destination, police said.

When police reached the spot, they learned about the heist and launched a hunt.

As per the release, prima facie Sura hatched the entire plan and sought Ghela's help to carry out the loot.
Sura was aware about the movements of 'angadia' (courier) trucks on the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway and needed more men to conduct the robbery, it said.
Ghela then contacted Pawar, who has settled in Surat after the murder of O P Singh in Nashik jail in 1999. Pawar went to jail several times in the past in extortion cases, said police.
According to police, 15 persons were involved in the heist, of which, 8 belonged to Pawar's gang while 7 were from the Bharwad gang.

As per the plan, Ghela, who was dressed in his uniform and standing with his car, intercepted the truck on the pretext of checking the papers.
When the driver and gunman reached near Ghela's car on the road side, the other accused overpowered them and drove away the truck to a nearby location, the release said, adding then, they looted 27 parcels and vanished after abandoning the truck.