Published On : Sat, Aug 19th, 2017

Ajni cops bust 3-member gang of fake scribes who robbed photographers

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Nagpur: A gang of three persons including a music teacher has been arrested by Ajni police on the charges of posing themselves as journalists of reputed newspapers and robbing photographers of their cameras, lenses, mobile phones. The accused trio called the photographers on the pretext of assigning them of some work and robbed them slyly.

The accused have been identified as Sahil Mahesh Vinchurkar (22), a resident of Somwari Quarter No 42, behind Binzani College, Budhwar Bazar Road, Sakkardara, Aniket Tishyaraj Shambharkar (21), a resident of PlotNo13, Shahu Colony, Bajrang Nagar, Lane No 6, and Kiran Mohansingh Thakur (24), a resident of Plot No 200, Lane No 3, Manewada Road. The gang was selling the stolen cameras, lenses and cellphones by posting advertisements on OLX website. Cops recovered some stolen cameras, including Canon EOS1300 D, Canon EOS7 D, two Canon lenses EFS 55-250 mm, Redmi mobile phone, a Honda Activa (MH-49)/Z-0915), Apple handset 4S, and a Samsung J-7 handset collectively worth Rs1.61 lakh from their possession.

According to Ajni Police Inspector Shailesh Sankhe, the modus operandi of the gang was that they used to impersonate as journalists from vernacular dailies and contact professional photographers and videographers. By assuring them photography and videography work at doctors’ seminars, kidney transplant operations the accused used to call the photographers at GMCH, TB Ward premises and Hanuman Nagar Garden. The accused then used to take them to a nearby apartment on the pretext of preparing their identity cards asking them to keep their cameras, lenses and cellphones in the utility box of their vehicle. By distracting their attention, the other gang members then used to steal cameras and cellphones from the utility box of their vehicles. Complaints were lodged by thevictims at Ajni and Imambada Police Stations. After obtaining the call data record (CDR) of the cellphones used by the accused and obtaining technical details of the stolen cameras and lenses posted by them on OLX, cops arrested them.

Interestingly, the mastermind of the gang, Sajil Vinchurkar fas done MA and is a music teacher in public school in city.

The arrests were made by API Sandeep Dhobe, NPCs Shailesh Badodekar,NileshwarTitarmare, Bhagwati Thakur, PC Prashant Sonulkar, Sunil Selokar, Manoj Neware, Amit Tiwari and Ashish Raut under the supervision of DCP (Zone IV) S Chaitanya, ACP (Sakkardara Division) Ravindra Kapgate and Senior PI (Ajni) Shailesh Sankhe.