Food bill, liquor bottle lead Akola cops to burglars’ den

Nagpur: A bill for food parcel and batch number on the label of a liquor bottle helped Akola cops nab a member of the Pardhi gang from a village about 365 kms away in Ahmednagar district in connection with a Rs45 lakh heist earlier this year.
A team of local crime branch led by senior inspector Shankar Shelke under supervision of SP Bachchan Singh is on the hunt for the remaining members of the gang which is likely to be involved in several burglaries.

A CCTV footage at a wine shop paved the arrest of Jigar Pimpale, 42, who has cases of burglaries registered against him at Aurangabad rural and Ahmednagar. He was nabbed from his den at Kolpewadi village.
Sources from Akola police said the gang had a feast in a forested stretch before striking at the house of an industrialist, around 300 metres away.
The food bill was found at the spot where the Pardhi burglars had abandoned the jewellery boxes before fleeing with the valuables.
The food parcel bill led cops to a hotel where the gang had consumed liquor. The label on the empty liquor bottles helped police recover the batch numbers, leading them to the wine shop which had sold them. At the wine shop, the cops recovered CCTV footages of two prime suspects.
The CCTV images were shared on WhatsApp group of the crime branch officials. Some officials identified the images and alerted the Akola police’s LCB. The LCB team reached Koplewadi but the suspects had fled by then. Cops then nabbed Pimpale, who is one of the key members of the gang which had committed the heist, and brought him to Akola.
According to a cop, the plan was to nab a close aide of Pimpale but he had already fled the place.
Police said the Pardhi gang members sneak into cities like Nagpur, Amravati, Wardha posing as vendors of soft toys, stationary, toiletries and so on. The gang first identifies an easy and big fish before breaking into the house later in the night. “Pardhi gangs are known to turn aggressive if confronted,” said the cop.