Four workers of a private contractor were caught by the Army authorities Friday while allegedly stealing key spare parts of armoured vehicles from the 512 Army Base Workshop in Khadki by hiding them under the seat of a tempo truck. The four suspects were later placed under arrest by the Pune police.

Officers from Khadki police station said a first information report has been registered by a subedar rank officer from the 512 Army Base Workshop in this regard. The police said that earlier on Friday, Army authorities on security detail at the base workshop caught the four suspects who were trying to decamp with eight units of generator armatures and two radiators used for BMPs, which are Russian-origin amphibious infantry fighting vehicles.

The police identified the arrested suspects as Sachin Siddhappa Bansode, 32, Amogsiddha Keshav Athawale, 38, Vikas Adinath Sabale, 31, all residents of Pimple Gurav, and Mohan Uttam Raskar, 43, a resident of Bhosari.

A sub-inspector who is investigating the case said, “The Army authorities caught the theft when the outgoing vehicles were being inspected. The four persons who were hired by a works contractor at the base workshop were detained by Army officials and handed over to us. We registered a case and placed the four persons under arrest.” Officers said they suspected that the spares were being stolen for the steel and copper in it, but said that all other possibilities will be investigated.

512 Army Base Workshop in Khadki is the flagship base workshop of the Indian Army and is engaged in the overhaul of armoured combat vehicles, armoured recovery vehicles and amphibious infantry fighting vehicles of the Indian Army.

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