Pune: The four-member itching powder spray gang struck for the fifth time within a week on Thursday afternoon outside a private bank at Jyoti Chowk in Kondhwa and fled with a businessman’s bag containing Rs65,000.The victim, Jamal Ahmad Khan (32), have his roots in Uttar Pradesh. Currently residing at Sayyednagar in Mohammadwadi, he deals in carpets and wall paper business.Khan had kept the stolen bag on his motorcycle when the suspects threw itching powder on his clothes and diverted his attention before swiftly picking up his bag and fleeing the spot. An FIR was lodged with the Kondhwa police on Thursday night.Khan stated in his complaint that he got a job to lay carpet at a madrassa on Salunke Vihar Road from Khalid Khatib a fortnight ago. On Thursday, Khatib gave him Rs16,000 and a cheque of Rs49,000. Khatib told him to encash the cheque from a private bank.Khan visited the bank but the cheque could not be encashed because the server was down. The authorities requested him to withdraw the money from either of their branches at Wanowrie or Kondhwa. He then visited the branch at Jyoti Chowk around 11.45am.Parking his bike outside the bank, Khan went inside and encashed the cheque. He kept the cash in a black haversack and walked out after 15 minutes.According to Khan, he removed the vehicle and came on the main road. When he was about to start the bike, a suspect sprayed itching powder on his clothes and later asked him to clean the same.Khan got down from the vehicle, kept the bag on it and started cleaning the clothes. In the meantime, another suspect surfaced and asked him to pick up something fallen near his vehicle to divert his attention. Khan bent down but did not find anything.Taking advantage of the situation, two other suspects riding on a motorbike picked up the bag of Khan containing the cash and sped away in the direction of Lullanagar while he was walking back to his vehicle. Khan then realized that the men had tricked him.Khan’s complaint has been registered under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code. Senior inspector Milind Gaikwad of the Kondhwa police said, “We are working on certain clues to establish the identity of the gang members. We will detect the bag-lifting case at the earliest.”Earlier this week, two men sprayed itching powder on the clothes of a 31-year-old Hadapsar residentand decamped with a bag containing Rs3.9 lakh on B T Kawde Road. At Chandni Chowk in Bhosari on Tuesday afternoon, unidentified men sprayed itching powder on a 64-year-old and fled with his bag containing Rs1.23 lakh

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