Auto Rickshaw Driver Arrested For Robbing 60-Year-Old Passenger In Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai, 22nd October 2024: An auto-rickshaw driver was apprehended by the Central Crime Branch Unit for attacking and robbing a 60-year-old woman passenger of her gold jewellery and mobile phone, valued at a total of Rs 3.25 lakh, while she was travelling to her home in Navade village, Taloja node, on the evening of October 17.
The victim, identified as Gulab Patil, filed a complaint leading to the registration of a robbery FIR at the Kalamboli Police Station. The accused has been named as 39-year-old Ananta Palekar.
Patil boarded the shared auto-rickshaw near the RAF Battalion Camp in Taloja, where another woman was already seated, both heading to Navade village. After the other passenger got off, the driver took Patil to a secluded area near the railway tracks along the Taloja-Kalamboli road.
There, the driver assaulted her with a wooden baton, stole her jewellery and mobile phone, and fled the scene. Patil managed to find another auto rickshaw to reach a hospital for treatment and subsequently filed an FIR at the Kalamboli Police Station.
According to Crime Branch officials, surveillance footage from CCTV cameras helped them obtain the registration number of the auto-rickshaw. They then contacted the relevant RTO to identify the owner, Ananta Palekar. Using mobile tower data, they located him in Pen, Raigad, and arrested him within seven hours. He has been remanded to police custody until October 21.
The authorities recovered all the stolen items from Palekar, who admitted to the crime, explaining that he robbed the passenger to settle an auto rickshaw loan from a credit cooperative society. He had fallen behind on his EMI payments, resulting in a notice from the bank threatening to confiscate his vehicle, which would have jeopardized his means of livelihood.
