Main accused in sale of used gloves held

Youth nabbed from hospital in Kochi

The Navi Mumbai Crime Branch’s Unit I has arrested the main accused in a case in which used gloves were being washed and resold.

Dheeraj Rishikeshan (28), a supervisor of waste management at Amritha Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre in Kochi, was arrested on September 8. Senior police inspector Subhash Nikam, Unit I, said, “We are verifying if he was an employee or on contract. Prima facie, the hospital does not seem to be involved in the crime.”

The accused, who has been remanded in police custody till Monday, said he was not aware that the gloves would be resold. He said he was made to believe that the gloves would be used to make slippers.

On August 18, a team led by assistant police inspector Rahul Rakh, Unit I, seized four lakh tonnes of used gloves from a unit at Gami Industrial Park in Pawane MIDC. The team found 263 sacks of used gloves and 17 packets of washed and dried gloves. Prashant Ashok Surve (38), a resident of Belapur, who ran the unit was arrested. He led the police to Vipul Shah (52), a resident of Malad, and Nazeem Khan (30), who ran a godown in Bhiwandi, where 15 tonnes of used gloves worth ₹15 lakh were seized.

Mr. Shah and Mr. Khan gave the police the details of Imran Lateef Siddiqui, who showed them a godown in Bengaluru, where 10 tonnes of used gloves worth ₹10 lakh were seized. However, the godown’s owner managed to escape.

The Crime Branch team also seized 19 tonnes of used gloves worth ₹19 lakh from a godown run by Afroz Shaikh (36) in Aurangabad. Mr. Shaikh’s interrogation led the police to Hyderabad, from where they got a link to the hospital in Kochi.

Tarun Lakshmandas Ramani in Delhi was identified as the middleman between Mr. Surve and Mr. Shaikh. The police said if the godown owner from Bengaluru is nabbed, then he could lead them to other hospitals selling used gloves.