TV news anchor gets lift from Pune, is robbed at gunpoint

NAVI MUMBAI: An anchor with a Marathi news channel, Girish Nikam (41), was robbed at gunpoint by four men in a private car who offered him a ride from Pune to Kharghar on Monday night. The robbers used his debit card to withdraw Rs 41,000 and took his gold chain before dumping him in Kalamboli.
Nikam approached the Kalamboli police, who filed a case of robbery under the IPC along with the Arms Act, and transferred the case to Swargate police station in Pune.The crime branch in Pune and Navi Mumbai are conducting parallel probes into the case.
Nikam told TOI that on Monday night, he was waiting at Swargate bus depot, when a man in his 30s said he could drop him at Kharghar for Rs 250. “I sat in the back seat between two men. On the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, we stopped at Talegaon to fill fuel and the driver took Rs 250 from the other three men. When we crossed Khalapur toll plaza, the driver halted for a loo break and two men went with him. When they returned, one of them sat next to me, held a weapon to my stomach and told me to hand over my gold chain and phone. Another man snatched my wallet, took my debit card and threatened to harm me if I didn’t give the PIN. They blindfolded me and drove for an hour. They halted somewhere and withdrew Rs 41,000 from an ATM,” he said. They returned his card, phone and wallet—they didn’t take Rs 1,200 inside it—and dumped him in an isolated spot at Kalamboli.
“As I removed my blindfold, the car sped away. As they had removed both SIMs from my phone, I could not contact anyone. I hired an auto and reached my Kharghar home at 1am,” Nikam said.
A crime branch officer said, “We will check the CCTV footage at the toll plaza, fuel station and the ATM.” —George Mendonca