Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Thieves dig tunnel, flee with ₹1.3-L valuables

- Sajana Nambiar

DOMBIVLI: Thieves dug a threefoot-long tunnel and robbed clothes and items worth ₹1.3 lakh from a shop which is adjacent to the Dombivli police station, on Sunday. The Ramnagar police and the Government Railway Police (GRP) are investigat­ing the case.

The thieves, who are still at large, fled with expensive clothes, bags, umbrellas, perfumes, mobile phones, and ₹9,000 in cash from the shop located right next to the police station. The shop is run by a cooperativ­e society formed by workers of Central Railway.the incident took place late at night on September 3, when the shop was closed, and the case was registered at the police station only five days later.

On September 4, a Tuesday and a day after the robbery happened, the shop remained closed as per their policy. The next day, 54-year-old Namdeo Chaudhuri, one of the shop’s salesmen found the store to be missing most of its items.

According to the police, the thieves dug the tunnel from near the railway track line near platform No 7.

This is the second such robbery happening in the same shop. Four years ago, thieves dug a tunnel under it and managed to flee with ₹32,000 in cash. No arrests were made in the case.

“The police are unable to trace the thieves as the shop does not have a CCTV installed,” said Chaudhari, who has been working in the store for the past 25 years. “We are sure there is a racket operating behind it.”

“We had registered a case with the GRP. We realised the shop falls under the jurisdicti­on of Ramnagar police station and hence we have transferre­d the case,” said Satish Pawar, senior police inspector, Dombivli GRP.

 ?? HT PHOTO ?? A man surveys the opening of the tunnel in the shop.
HT PHOTO A man surveys the opening of the tunnel in the shop.

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