Nagpur crime branch arrests four in Uttar Pradesh over Rs 40 lakh Hingna Road jewellery heist
Nagpur Police say four alleged members of an inter-state gang were held in Bareilly, Noida and Meerut over the October 3 robbery at a MIDC-area jeweller's shop.
Four men believed to belong to an interstate gang have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh in connection with a gunpoint jewellery robbery in Nagpur, in which gold and silver worth about Rs 40 lakh was carried off. The city's crime branch cracked the case, and Police Commissioner Vishwas Nangare Patil disclosed the arrests at a press conference on October 14.
The robbery took place on October 3, 2026, in the stretch between roughly 4.40 pm and 4.55 pm, on Hingna Road within the limits of MIDC police station. The target was Dhomane Jewellers (also spelt Dhomne in some of the police accounts), a shop that deals in buying and selling gold and silver ornaments and sits across from Mahakali Bar. Its owner, Rakesh Subhash Dhomane, 39, lives in Gajanan Nagar, MIDC.
Only one person was behind the counter that afternoon: the owner's 24-year-old employee, Shubham Khemraj Hadge. Four unidentified men walked in during broad daylight. One of them pointed what looked like a pistol at the young man and warned that he would be killed. The gang then grabbed the gold and silver jewellery kept in the shop and beat Hadge before running out.
The haul weighed about 350 grams and has been valued at around Rs 40 lakh. On the jeweller's complaint, MIDC police booked the case under Sections 309(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Because of how serious the offence was, the local police and the crime branch each started their own inquiry in parallel. The robbers had vanished from the scene, and putting names to them was the hardest part. Investigators gathered footage from CCTV cameras at the shop and in the neighbourhood and sat through some 300 to 400 clips, tracking how the men moved and which routes they were likely to have taken out of the city. Along with technical analysis, police say they used artificial intelligence tools and stitched together circumstantial evidence to identify the suspects and work out where they might be hiding.
As the trail developed, it became clear that the men had left Maharashtra. Two special crime branch teams were dispatched to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and a third team went to another state when the need arose. According to the press note, the first two teams concealed who they were and made quiet inquiries in local areas for four days, collecting technical information and relying on local police for details about where the suspects might be, how they moved and whom they were in touch with. Altogether the pursuit ran for seven days, with searches carried out at several places in coordination with the police of those states. Hideouts were pinpointed from the information gathered, and the suspects were picked up.
The first to be caught was Abhishek Singh Thakur, detained in Bareilly. Long questioning of him produced details about the others allegedly involved, and the teams then closed in. Of the remaining three, two were taken from Noida and one from Meerut.
The police press note names the arrested as follows: Abhishek Singh Thakur of Bareilly; Jairam alias Joginder Ashok Singh Thakur, 19, of Noida; Shubhankit Nileshkumar Chaturvedi, 22, also of Noida; and Rajan Sami Sharma, 29, of Meerut. Police say all four were allegedly part of the robbery, and the note describes them as habitual offenders with criminal records.
Officers have also seized the Fortuner used in the crime, which carries the registration number MH-49-B-9192. Its history, and the movements of the accused, are being examined. The inquiry continues into what part each of the four played, whether they were linked to other offences, and who else was involved. Police are looking for the rest of the gang, and the stolen jewellery has not yet been recovered, which remains the most important task left for the investigators.
Officers from outside Maharashtra helped the operation. The press note singles out Head Constable Sachin Jha of the SWAT team at Badaun, SI Neeraj Pawar of Saharanpur, and personnel named Harendra, Amit Chikara, Jogendra and Vivek Rana for special assistance.
Within the Nagpur force, Commissioner Nangare Patil guided the effort. Under him were Joint Commissioner Naveenchandra Reddy (written Navinchandra in one account), Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajendra Dabhade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Deepak Agrawal and Assistant Commissioner of Police Vaibhav Jadhav of the crime branch. On the ground, the work was carried out by crime branch Police Inspector Shubhangi Deshmukh and Assistant Police Inspectors Chetan Borkhede, Nitin Chulpar and Rajaram Jadhav, together with the rest of the officers and staff concerned.
The arrests are being seen as a significant success for the Nagpur police. Even so, getting the stolen gold and silver back and tracing the gang's remaining associates will decide how complete the case turns out to be.
