Three of rickshaw gang in custody in Ahmedabad

Kalupur police on Sunday caught three people, all part of an auto rickshaw gang involved in robbing passengers of their valuables and money after making them unconscious. They are Irshad Mansuri, 30, a notorious criminal, involved in 30 cases; Mohammad Samir Qureshi, 32, an auto rickshaw driver, involved in several crimes and Nirav alias Vijay Ashwar, 25, who too is involved in four cases earlier. All of the accused are residents of Jamalpur.

Irshad and Nirav were in prison together in 2008 and that is where their friendship had developed, said police. On December 11, at 8:45 pm, Piyush Kumbhar, a resident of Sabarmati got off at the Kalupur railway station from where he went to MotiMahal hotel in Kalupur. Nirav began arguing with Kumbhar for no reason after which two other men arrived on the scene in a rickshaw and forced Kumbhar to seat in the rickshaw along with them after making him unconscious. The trio then left him at Saranpur.

Police standing near the paan shop at Saranpur, where the trio was standing, found their behaviour to be suspicious after they also took out a cellphone from the auto. The police approached them and started questioning them.

Kalupur polie station PI, RK Khumbhar Wadia says, "All three criminals are very notorious and we were aware of the rickshaw gang being active in the city and were on the look out for them. We nabbed a similar gang a week ago."