5 persons robbed of 2.5 lakh on the Pune Mumbai Highway

In a second incident within a week, group of five friends were robbed of Rs2.50 lakh and other valuables by robbers on the Mumbai-Pune highway on Friday morning. The friends, who were on their way to Mumbai, were attacked by the robbers near Indryani bridge when they halted their to freshen up. They were looted of their cash, gold chains and mobile phones.
Narrating the incident, Sural Malik 32, a businessmen and resident of Gadchiroli, said, "Every year, during monsoon, we visit Mumbai to enjoy with our friends. After leaving from Gadchiroli, we halted at Pune. As we did not want to drive in heavy traffic, we decided to leave from Pune at 3am."
When they reached the Indryani bridge around 4am, they halted at a restaurant
for refreshments. "I stayed back in the car along with Sharma, one of our friends. Sharma got out to throw the water bottle into the dustbin. However, it hit the robbers who were sitting by the side of the road," Malik said.
"The group of robbers started arguing with Sharama. I got out and was watching this from a distance. Then they started hitting him with an iron rod. I started screaming and ran towards the car but by that time some of them had taken out a bag from it that had Rs2.50 lakh in cash. They also broke the head light of the car and ran away towards the jungle."
Sharma who had sustained head injury was admitted to a government hospital in Wadgaon Maval.
Police sub-inspector of Wadgaon Maval police station NS Nimabalkar said, "The four robbers were waiting at the opposite side of the road to attack commuters who stops by for refreshment. We have started our search operation following the incident. We will increase night patrolling in the area so that such incidents are averted in future."