2 auto ‘passengers’ held on robbery charge

Pune: The Wanowrie police have arrested two men posing as passengers on the charge of robbing two autorickshaw drivers of their cellphones by threatening them with a sickle in an underpass near the Kalepadal railway crossing on June 17.
“Shadab Ansari (19) from Sayyednagar and his friend Fayyaz Ansari (20) of Uruli Devachi were arrested on June 20 after a technical investigation established their involvement in the robberies,” deputy commissioner of police (zone V) Namrata Patil said on Wednesday.
Patil said, “Shadab is a vegetable vendor and Fayyaz works at a fabrication workshop. They are first-time offenders. They boarded two autorickshaws as passengers and robbed the drivers by threatening them with a sickle. They would force the driver to stop in an underpass thinking of it as a safe place to commit the crime.”
“Two FIRs relating to robberies were registered with the Wanowrie police, following which a team led by assistant inspector Jaywant Jadhav under senior inspector Deepak Lagad made the arrests. We have recovered two phones worth Rs30,200 and a sickle from them,” Patil added.