PUNE: Two men on a bike snatched a bag containing Rs 7.9 lakh after threatening a cigarette trader and his employee with a chopper on the service road below the railway overbridge in Mundhwa around 2pm on Wednesday.Manoj Rajkumar Kevramani, one of the partners of SSD Traders, was riding a scooter with employee Shailesh Ranpise on the pillion. Ranpise was carrying the bag and they had left their office in Malwadi for the Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank’s Koregaon Park branch.The two men on the bike caught up with the scooter and intercepted Kevramani and Ranpise on the busy service road. The man on the pillion of the bike threatened Ranpise and his employer with a chopper, snatched the bag containing the cash and the rider sped away via the old Mundhwa road.Police said Kevramani reported the incident around 3.45pm, almost two hours after the robbery. Police added that the delay in the reporting of the robbery hampered investigation to some extent even as their investigation was on.Senior inspector (incharge of Mundhwa police) said, “Kevramani and his employee did not resist because they were scared to see one of the robbers brandishing a chopper. They did not even try to follow the robbers. The complaint was lodged after Kevramani consulted his business partner.”Probe revealed that Kevramani and his employee would always use a shorter route via the service road to reach the bank. Police learnt that the employees of the trading firm would pass via Pune-Solapur Road, take a right turn from Noble hospital and pass via Magarpatta Road, service road below the old Mundhwa bridge, Tadigutta Chowk and ABC Road to reach the bank’s branch in Koregaon Park Police advisories also suggest use of alternative routes while carrying huge amount of cash to banks and four-wheelers instead of bikes or scooters.Patrudkar said, “The robbers were on a motorcycle black in colour. We are checking CCTV footage to ascertain the routes used by them. We are working on certain clues to detect the case at the earliest.”According to descriptions provided by Kevraman i and Ranpise, the motorcycle rider was wearing a blue shirt and a denim and was aged around 30-35 years. The man on the pillion was wearing a shirt and a jeans and was aged around 30 years.“One of the robbers was wearing a cap and the other had covered his head with a cloth. We do not rule out the involvement of an insider in providing the robbers with some tip-offs about Kevramani and Ranspise’s movement,” Patrudkar said.

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