Pune: Police Sahakarnagar on Friday arrested a 23-year-old man on charges of robbing accident victims from his smartphone with the pretext of helping him.
The incident took place on June 10 when Sagar Navghane (31), a resident of Dhankawdi, met with an accident near the Statue of Swami Vivekanda, on Jalan Pune-Satara.
“Navghane, a PMPML driver by the profession, was driving his motorcycle house when his bicycle slipped because the road became slippery because of heavy rainfall,” said Sub-Inspector Sudhir Ghadge on Saturday.
According to Ghadge, the suspect, identified as Ishwar Bhadakwad, rushed to a place with the pretext of helping Navghane.
“Instead, Bhadakwad took the Navghane and RS15,000 smartphone and escaped.
Navghane did not register complaints at that time,” Ghadge said.
A crime branch official, who did not want to be named, said Navghane had visited the police Sahakarnagar immediately after the incident to register fir.
“The police took his cellphone number but did not pay attention to his complaint.
He then decided not to continue to make the police station round,” the official said.
Further crime branch officials said that Navghane telephone could not be traced when the thief had turned it off; Phone numbers, however, have not been blocked.
“We are investigating online complaints related to missing cellphones.
We tried to track Navghane’s phone on various occasions but was in vain,” the police said.
According to police officials, Bhadakwad turned on the phone on Friday and the police could track the location and arrest him.
“As long as it was questioned, Bhadakwad claimed to rob a telephone victim of an accident.
We then traced the address of the Navghane housing and called him to be questioned.
He identified his telephone and the suspect,” said the Branch Official of Crime.
Navghane complaints are listed under Section 392 (robbery) from Indian Criminal Code.
“We recorded his complaint and moved it to the police Sahakarnagar,” added the official.
Navghane is not available to comment when TI reaches him on the phone.