Mumbai: Crime branch officers, on Thursday, arrested a 65-year-old robber who allegedly had been stealing Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) garbage trucks and selling it as scrap. While selling, he used to claim that he had been awarded a contract by the municipal corporation to scrap the vehicles.
The accused – Baijnath Landge, also known as ‘kachre wala’ – retired as a driver for the civic body after serving for over 20 years.
According to the police, for the past two months, four garbage trucks had been reported stolen from Vasai by the municipal corporation. After following recordings of over 600 traffic CCTV cameras, the police found a man using the same route after robbing each truck.
“We found that the robber used to take the trucks from Vasai to Wada and from there to Jawahar then to Nashik and towards Aurangabad. Thus, the police reached Parbhani where Landge stayed,” said Rahuraj Ranawade, police inspector, Vasai crime branch.
The police officers reached Parbhani’s garage where they met a mechanic who said that Landge had been bringing one truck every 15 days to dismantle and send the parts to a scrap dealer.
“After removing the good parts of the truck like the engine, tyres etc. which could be fitted on other vehicles, he used to sell the truck. Each truck used to fetch at least ₹3 lakh after dismantling it,” said Ranawade.
“Landge, who knew that the garbage trucks of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have GPS tracking, targeted garbage trucks from Vasai-Virar and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation,” said Ranawade.
He used to roam in Vasai at night and robbed parked trucks.
“We are now finding out since when was he robbing the trucks and how many have been robbed till now,” said Ranawade.