Mumbai:
Police on Thursday claimed to have cracked three bank robbery cases reported in North Mumbai since June with the arrest of two persons.
Sonu Gorakh and Brahmanand Dubey were nabbed on Wednesday for their role in the heists, police said. They were remanded in police custody till October 20.
Police sources said one more person has been picked up in connection with the cases, even as search was on for seven more accused.
On Monday, three armed men had looted Rs 21 lakh from Saraswat Co-operative Bank in Kandivali. On June 21, Model Co-operative Bank's branch in suburban Malad was robbed of Rs 34 lakh by four armed men. On August 30, five robbers had looted Rs 27.5 lakh from HDFC Bank's Borivali branch.
"Five pistols, 71 live cartridges, one knife and Rs 74,700 were recovered from Gorakh's residence," Additional Police Commissioner Ramrao Pawar told reporters.
According to police, he had carried out survey of these bank branches. "Sonu Gorakh provided details of these banks to his accomplices, who executed the heists and escaped to different parts of the country," Pawar said.
The first breakthrough was obtained with the seizure of a black motorbike on the day the Saraswat Bank was robbed. A witness managed to partially note down its registration number after which the bike was traced to a garage in Charkop.
"One Ali, who runs the garage, was questioned. He told us that the bike belonged to one Sonu," Pawar said.
Gorakh was the brain behind the heists, while Dubey supplied the gang with unregistered motorbikes equipped with fake license plate numbers, the police officer said.
"The gang preferred to rob banks on Mondays as there is more cash in the bank at the beginning of the week," he said.