53 fridges on way to Qatar stolen, 3 arrested

CBD BELAPUR: Three men of a gang were ar rested by t he Panvel police f or stealing refrigerators t hat were on their way for export to Qatar via Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust ( JNPT) route. A total of 53 refrigerators were recovered of the 76 stolen.

Following an export order, 76 refrigerators from a plant in Pune had been packed in a container trailer and sent to JNPT. The trailer’s driver Istaqar Intezaar is absconding and police are on a lookout for him.

Police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan said, “The container left Pune on January 27. However, instead of going to JNPT, it was diverted from NH 4 towards New Delhi. The complainant, Kiran Soniminde, informed us that according to their last contact, Police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan at a press conference gives details of the case on Wednesday.

the driver had his meal at Jassi Da Dhabha l ocated on NH4 on Nhava Sheva Road. There was no contact with him after that.”

When the refrigerator did not reach JNPT port even after

several days, a complaint was filed at Panvel city police station.

“Following investigations, senior inspector of Panvel police station Sunil Bajare traced the mobile location of Intezaar to Delhi. However, since his phone was switched on for some time, there were no further location traces of him,” said Ranjan.

He said, “Based on the information about his location, our teams kept an eye on the godowns in Delhi and its nearby areas.”

“Finally, we found suspicious activity at a godown at Pahadganj and kept watch on the person there,” he said.

We got confirmation that the godown had stocked the refrigerators from the Pune consignment and then raided it,” he said.

The police seized 53 fridge wor t h Rs6,71,509 f rom t he godown and arrested Ahmed Raza, 30, Akmal, 49, Salman Shaikh, 22, who were registered as the owners of t he consignment. “We are trying to locate the remaining refrigerators from the consignment,” said Ranjan.

BACHCHAN KUMAR