If you thought vehicle theft was a thing of the past, think again! The Pune Crime Branch recently nabbed a notorious thief who was behind over 50 cases of two-wheeler theft in the city. Shankar Bharat Devkule, a 32-year-old from Uruli Devachi, was caught in Kolhapur District’s Ichalkaranji area after being caught on CCTV stealing a bike in Parvati.
Devkule, who had been out on bail just five months ago, wasted no time getting back to his criminal ways. The police managed to recover 25 stolen bikes from him, with 18 owners already identified. Turns out, Devkule had a clever scheme to avoid getting caught – he would remove the number plates after stealing the bikes and then pass them on to his partner in crime, Aniket Sunil Kudale, a garage owner from Daund.
Pretending to be an employee of a financial institution, Devkule would convince Kudale that the bikes were repossessed due to non-payment of instalments. Kudale would then sell the modified bikes to unsuspecting buyers, mostly farmers in the Daund area. But their luck ran out when the Pune Crime Branch Unit 3, under the leadership of Police Inspector Rangrao Pawar, cracked the case.
The investigation kicked off after a bike theft in Parvati, with the police using CCTV footage to track down the culprit. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shailesh Balkawade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingle, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime 1) Ganesh Ingle oversaw the operation, which led to the arrest of Devkule and his accomplice.
Devkule’s method of operation involved using duplicate keys to steal parked bikes, then changing the chassis and engine numbers for resale. This case sheds light on the persistent issue of vehicle theft in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, with Devkule alone being connected to more than 50 incidents. The police are now working to track down the owners of the remaining recovered bikes as the investigation continues.
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