Six persons were arrested, 23 others booked. 22 trucks and tippers, 32 cell phones and 872 fake e-TPs collectively worth Rs 3.96 crore seized by police
Nagpur: The Crime Branch of the Nagpur Police arrested six persons and booked 23 others after busting an inter-state racket that had been issuing fake royalty receipts and electronic transit passes (e-TP) to the sand mafia in Vidarbha.
The racketeers from whom cops seized 22 trucks and tippers, 32 cell phones and 872 fake e-TPs collectively worth Rs 3.96 crore were causing huge loss to the state exchequer.
Those arrested by the Crime Branch team have been identified as Akshay Raju Gaat (25), a resident of Plot No 26, New Diamond Nagar, near Gajanan Kirana Stores, Kharbi Road; Jitendra Rangraoji Hazare (33), a resident of Plot No 02, Ravi Palace, Ramkrishna Nagar, Umrer Road, Dighori; Roshan Moreshwar Patil (32), a resident of Plot No 51, Vakilpeth; Sumit Chandrabhan Kamble (30), a resident of Plot No 25, Rashtra Sant Nagar, Gargoti area, Dighori; Rahul Tukaram Dhok (28), a resident of Plot No 22, Pipla, Beltarodi, and Lokesh Govinlal Jain (33), a resident of Plot No 18, Abha Colony, Bharatwada.
Police produced them before the court and obtained remand for their custodial interrogation for five days. Others booked include mastermind Rahul Naresh Khanna, Biswa Ashok Kumar Ranjan Das, Rajendra Singh Bhagwan Singh (Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh), Surendra Vithoba Sawarkar, Piyush Rajendra Burde, Ishan Lahukumar Bangde, Rupesh Gajanan Rokde, Amit Lekhraj Rai (Khapa), Ashish Mulchand Gaur, Mahesh Chandraprakash Chakole, Laxmikant Dashrath Satpute, Chandrashekhar Ganesh Kamdar, Praful Shivdas Kapse, Vinod Radheshyam Gupta, Ravindra alias Dadu Motilal Kolte (Saoner), Devendra Dhanraji Thakre (Zingabai Takli), Rahul Durwasrao Jangde (Indra Nagar, Hudkeshwar), Sanjay Sitaram Lanjewar (Bhanegaon, Khaperkheda), Rahul Mangruji Wadia (Khedi, district Betul, MP), Ayush Ajay Trivedi (Kamptee), Deepak Sanjay Panjalu (Panjara, Koradi), Sharad Kisanlal Rai (Patansawangi) and Mukesh Nanaji Patle (Koradi).
Earlier, cops had arrested the mastermind Rahul Khanna from Bhopal. According to a complaint lodged by Santosh Gaikwad (43), a resident of Friends Colony, he had informed the police about the modus operandi of the racket. He had transferred Rs 9,900 to Khanna from PhonePe app for providing royalty papers and transport permit for sand excavated from a sand ghat located at district Narsinghpur, MP. On the demand of Gaikwad, Khanna had prepared fake royalty receipts and e-TPs and had sent them to Gaikwad on WhatsApp.
Separate cases under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, and Maharashtra Jamin Mahsul Sanhita were registered against the accused at Sadar Police Station. Investigators are now interrogating the arrested accused to ascertain the names of other racketeers. Some sand ghat contractors of the region and adjoining states are also on the radar of the Crime Branch.
The arrests were made by API Mayur Chaurasia and his team under the supervision of Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar, Joint CP Aswati Dorje, Additional CP (Crime) Navindra Reddy, DCP (Detection) Chinmay Pandit and ACP Roshan Pandit.
