Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has busted a gang of highway robbers who targeted the consignments of a copper company based in Navi Mumbai and decamped with valuables worth over Rs 2.5 crore in separate incidents.
The accused would keep watch on the trailer, intercept it at Palghar and fix it to their horse (in front) to avoid getting tracked by GPS. They targeted the said company as security was lax.
Those arrested have been identified as drivers - Wasim Bashir Shaikh, 29; Sarfaraz Sattar Khan, 24 and Aftej Khan, 29; and metal trader Mohsin Baloch, 31. The accused would keep watch on the containers that left the Copper India Company in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, and trail them till the highway at Palghar. The gang would then intercept the trailer at an isolated spot, kill the driver, and flee with the goods (copper rods and wires). The metal has high demand in the market and is easy to melt for any desired purpose.
Baloch was the gang’s business brain as he was into the metal trade and knew how and whom to sell the stolen copper to. He also had bill books from his old business which were used to fabricate documents of stolen copper in case of hiccups while selling it to companies outside the state.
Dilip Sawant, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch, said, “The gang had a well-oiled network and a fixed set of copper buyers in Gujarat. A team conducted a raid in Gujarat after it was found that the copper was sold to a company in the industrial belt at Rajkot. Copper rods were recovered in the form of pieces that were set to be melted.”
The accused carried out robberies in the jurisdiction of Waliv police station in Palghar hence they have been handed over to them for further investigation.
