A film style robbery in a moving auto at Mumbai

A bottle of chloroform has been a primary weapon in many a heist planned in Bollywood masala flicks, where the victim is rendered unconscious by merely placing a laced hanky over the nose. Santacruz resident Ashok Babaji Ladgavkar has filed a complaint at the Kasturba Marg police station stating that a thief used a handkerchief dabbed with chloroform to loot him. According to the police complaint, Ladgavkar, an employee of Royal Tivekal Star club, was on his way to deposit the cash at Bharat Bank in Dahisar on Monday morning when he was looted in the dramatic heist in Kandivli.

45-year-old Ladgavkar said when rickshaw slowed down at Thakur Garden junction on the Western Express Highway, a man jumped in and held a chloroform-laced handkerchief to his face. In a matter of seconds, Ladgavkar lost consciousness and was thrown out of the rickshaw. The thief then fled with the bag full of money. When Ladgavkar came to his senses, he found himself lying on the roadside. He immediately went to the police station to file a complaint.

The Kasturba Marg police have registered a case against an unknown person for making away with Rs 22.19 lakh from Ladgavkar. According to the police statement, the complainant was travelling by rickshaw to deposit the cash at Dahisar, when the incident took place at Kandivli East. Ladgavkar alleged that after the robber overpowered him, he fled with the cash in the same rickshaw. When contacted Assistant Inspector M Raorane from the Kasturba Marg police station said that they have registered a case of robbery against the unidentified man.

However, the police are also verifying the claims of Ladgavkar as his version of the incident has many loopholes. "If Ladgavkar was thrown out of a moving rickshaw he must have suffered injuries and should have gone to the hospital. Instead he came to the police station and did not have any marks on his body or clothes," said Raorane. "Secondly, according to Ladgavkar's statement it appears that the rickshaw driver was also involved in the robbery which we are investigating," added Raorane.