Nagpur: Three arsonists who set a car ablaze and damaged 18 other vehicles in a late night rampage in Narendra Nagar area here were nabbed by Beltarodi police within 10 hours of the outrageous crime. The arrests were made after scanning CCTV footage and identifying the accused trio.
The arrested hooligans have been identified as Ritesh alias Hitesh Jagannath Dekate (18), a resident of Plot 42, Pachasi Plot Area, Chirag DeepakThulkar (18), a resident of Plot No 316, Empress Mall Society, near Suyog Nagar Garden and Avish Suresh Taywade (18), a resident of Saikrupa Society, Narendra Nagar.
It may be recalled that the three miscreants went on a rampage setting a car afire and damaging as many 17 vehicles, including 14 four-wheelers in the wee hours of Thursday. The incident left the residents terrified in Ajni and Beltarodi police areas. The owners whose vehicles were damaged by the miscreants suffered huge losses. Cops also seized the motorcycle used by the vandals for committing the crime.
One of the accused Chirag Thulkar works as a security guard at Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation. He had organised a birthday party of their common friend Vicky Malviya at the guard room in Ujwal Nagar. The three accused and their friends enjoyed liquor at the party. After the party, Ritesh, Chirag and Avish came to Narendra Nagar on a motorcycle. They stole petrol from some vehicles parked in front of the houses in the locality.
After filling the fuel tank of their bike, one of them riding pillion kept a bottle containing petrol with him. While riding triple seat, they stopped in front of Sameer Sunil Raut’s house in Narendra Nagar. One of the two pillion riders got down and torched the Ford Figo car (MH31/EA-1143) of Raut after pouring petrol on it. The miscreants smashed the windshields and window panes of 11 cars parked on the roadside in Borkute Layout, Narendra Nagar in Beltarodi area.
Theys alos damaged the windowpane of a Maruti Celerio car (MH-49/AS-1495) owned by Shubham Ramesh Khairkar parked in front of his house at Plot No 20, Rama Nagar on Rameshwari Road in Ajni area. The accused trio went on rampage and broke the windshields of Maruti Omni van (MH-31/AG7199) belonging to Niranjan Selkar, Hyundai i20car (MH-49/AS-6834) owned by Rajesh Vinay Lokhande, and a Ford car (MH-43/R-7412) of Praveen Shende in the same locality. Before fleeing the area,the three hoodlums damaged a few two-wheelers.
On being informed of the incident, a team of Beltarodi Police Station led by Senior Inspector Vijay Akot rushed to the locality. Officers from Ajni Police Station also arrived at Rama Nagar on being informed by residents. Police nabbed the miscreants after identifying them in the footages of CCTV cameras. Beltarodi and Ajni Police registered separate offences under Sections 379, 435, 427 and 34 of the IPC against the three accused.
The arrests were made by a team of Beltarodi Police led by PSI Vikas Manpiya under the supervision of Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar, Additional Commissioner (South Region) Dilip Zalke, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Dr Akshay Shinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police P M Karyakarte, Senior Inspector Akot and Inspector Dilip Salunke. Further investigations are underway.
