Undercover Operation: Panvel Police Pose as Adivasis to Crack Down on Highway Robbers

*Panvel police have successfully apprehended five suspects linked to a series of robberies on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway after going undercover as local adivasis for two days.*

The operation was initiated following a robbery on September 9, when a tempo driver from Madhya Pradesh was attacked and robbed of ₹23,000 and two mobile phones valued at ₹5,000 each. This incident was part of a troubling pattern, with seven similar robberies reported in recent months along the same stretch of road.

To tackle the rising crime wave, officers disguised themselves as locals, adopting traditional attire and unshaven appearances to blend in. Their investigation identified five suspects—Rohan “Guddu” Naik (24), Rohidas Pawar (23), Atesh Waghmare (26), Manish Waghmare (35), and Shankar Waghmare (18)—all of whom worked as carpenters and laborers by day and turned to robbery at night.

The tempo driver, Pradesh Gendlal Ramgarib Patel, provided crucial descriptions of the assailants, which the police used to coordinate their investigation. Senior Police Inspector Anil Patil noted that the lack of eyewitness accounts or CCTV footage made the case particularly challenging.

With intelligence from local informers indicating Rohidas Pawar's whereabouts in Khalapur, the undercover team carefully monitored the suspects over two days. Dressed in traditional attire, the officers blended seamlessly with the community. They discovered that the gang regularly met at night to plan their next robbery.

On the second day of surveillance, one undercover officer struck up a conversation with one of the suspects under the pretext of drinking alcohol, successfully obtaining a contact number that led to further arrests. This breakthrough allowed the police to locate and detain four additional suspects in Nimbodewadi village, where GPS data corroborated their involvement in the earlier robbery.

The operation revealed that Guddu Naik had a criminal history, with multiple dacoity cases filed against him. All suspects have been remanded to police custody until September 20, as the investigation continues to locate the remaining members of the gang.