NAGPUR: Ajay Banjare, 18, gifted his mother jewellery worth Rs 50,000 and his father a second-hand car worth Rs 40,000 with the cash he, along with accomplice Pradeep Thakur, allegedly stole from a co-operative bank in Baranal Square, Indira Gandhi Nagar.
The two had stolen valuables worth more than Rs 4.78 lakh from the bank, which had come to fore on June 20.
Partners-in-crime for several years, Banjare and Thakur are learnt to have contrasting attitudes towards their respective parents.
While Banjare wanted to make his parents happy with his ‘earnings’ and ‘wealth’, Thakur was keen to attain a notorious stature as a burglar or thief, just as revenge against his parents who had abandoned him in childhood.
The two had also purchased expensive mobile phones after stealing cash and valuables from the bank.
They were planning to purchase another second-hand car for travelling to other states like Rajasthan for burglaries, as local cops had already identified their faces and whereabouts.
It’s learnt that the police started trailing the duo after getting information of the substantial cash in their possession.
The cops also came to know that the duo had settled the dues of their advocate in one go after he secured bail for them in an earlier case of two-wheeler theft.
The duo’s bragging about breaking into a bank and sneaking away with substantial cash led to their arrest by a team of cops comprising naik police constables Shrikant Sable, Pankaj Lade, Sachin Andhale, Praful Pardhi and others, under assistant police inspector Nilesh Gosavi and senior inspector Vinod Patil of crime branch unit number five.
Though police managed to net the duo last week while it was planning to sneak away to Rajasthan, Banjare and Thakur had already spent majority of the stolen money by then.
The cops could only recover cash and valuables worth Rs 2 lakh from them.
Police said the duo used to earlier steal two-wheelers to conduct recces and then strike at targets.
They had been nabbed in the past for two-wheeler thefts.