Palghar: With arrest of five people including a TV artiste, the Virar police under the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai Virar police commissionerate on Thursday claimed to have bust a gang of thieves operating in Palghar and Thane districts.
Acting on technical and intelligence inputs, a team of Crime Branch Virar unit zeroed in on the accused over the past couple of days and arrested the five, police said.
According to police, the alleged accused used to steal the ATM cards of the bank customers under the pretext of helping them at automated teller machine kiosk and then siphoned of their monies.
Police recovered 60 ATM cards from their possession. They also seized an autorickshaw and a motorbike used by the accused for committing the crimes.
The arrested accused have been identified as Dharmendra Dubey (40), Ajay Shukla (33), Bablu Saroj (35), Jitendrakumar Chamar (24) and Brijesh Chouhan (22).
While Dharmendra and Ajay are from Nalla Sopara, the three others are from Kandivali of Mumbai.
Ajay Shukla had acted in various TV serials including Crime Patrol, Savdhaan India, Ganesha, Akbar Birbal and also in some web series. Due to lockdown, he was not getting any roles and hence he took to the crime for a living.
During the interrogation, the accused confessed to have committed crimes at Valiv, Virar, Thane, Bhiwandi, Mumbai, and Dungra and Vapi of Gujarat.
The Crime Branch have since handed over the accused persons to the Virar police for investigation of crimes, it was stated. (UNI)
