Lucknow: A 30-year-old man who was on the run for three months after committing a theft of Rs 5 lakh from a wine shop in Pune was arrested by joint teams of the Special Task Force (STF) and Pune police on Saturday after a video of him brawling with a customer went viral on social media.
The man, identified as Bhanu Pratap Singh, was accused of stealing the money from Venus Wine Shop in Pune in June 2023. He fled the city and began working at a wine shop in Indiranagar, Lucknow, where he got into a fight with a customer 15 days ago. The incident was filmed and went viral, and Pune police identified Bhanu in the video.
Police said that Bhanu had worked at Venus Wine Shop in Pune in June 2023. After the police started looking for him, he moved to Lucknow and took a job at a bar in the Ghazipur police station area, concealing his identity. Pune police continued to investigate the case and sought the help of the STF of Uttar Pradesh after they saw the video.
ASP, STF, Vishal Vikram Singh said that during interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime and said that he had gone to Pune in 2021 with Ram Verma, a resident of Unnao. He further said that Verma had helped him get a job through Ramesh Singh, a Pune resident who provides contract jobs to young people. He was hired as a manager.
The miscreant said that he stole the cash in June when the CCTV at the wine shop malfunctioned. He then fled to Lucknow, where he was living in hiding and working at the Blue Fox Bar in Lekhraj Market for about a month.
The police said that the accused had a fight with a customer at the bar a fortnight ago and was arrested. The shop owner later arranged for his bail and he was released from jail. The video of the brawl went viral on social media and was eventually seen by Pune police.
