pune a gang of six armed men struck twice around 1 am on sunday robbing eight people in two vehicles of cash and gold ornaments worth rs 173 lakh at valvan near lonavla on the punemumbai expressway both vehicles had stopped along the expressway when the gang robbed the occupants while the gang first robbed the occupants of a multiutility vehicle muv near the lonavla exit in the pune corridor they targeted a sports utility vehicle suv minutes later on the other side of the expressway in the lane towards mumbai the gang members who had covered their faces with white cloth forcibly removed the gold ornaments of six of the seven women travelling in these two vehicles a woman travelling in the suv which was headed to mumbai tried to resist the robbers but was hit by one of them with a torch she sustained an injury on the head of the eight people travelling in the muv two were patients who were being taken to pimpalgaon near daund for treatment sudhir shinde 22 from vashi in navi mumbai told toi that his neighbours hired his muv to go to pimpalgaon where the two patients were to take treatment on sunday morning there were eight persons in the vehicle including five women most of them were senior citizens when we reached the khandala ghat section the two patients asked me to stop the vehicle to answer the call of nature however i did not stop there as i knew it could be dangerous after crossing the ghat i stopped the vehicle near the lonavla exit one of the patients rama gaikwad 80 got down and so did i he said shinde said that the armed men suddenly came near the vehicle they asked me why i had stopped along the expressway before i could say anything one of them brandished a sharp weapon and asked me for my money i tried to hold the weapon but suffered a minor injury the robbers pulled out my wallet which had rs 3000 and my driving licence as well as my ring when i asked them to return my licence they threatened me he said shinde said the robbers forcibly removed gold ornaments worth rs 40000 of shantabai kadam 50 bismilla baple 44 laxmibai khadse 59 and sita gaikwad 75 they crossed over to the other side of the expressway and vanished in the dark he added around the same time the suv headed towards mumbai had halted on the other side of the expressway after the driver shivaji sathe of kondhwa complained of uneasiness the owner of the vehicle anand vanzara 43 of wanowrie was going to the sahar international airport in mumbai along with his sisters to pick up his wife who was returning from the us the same gang of robbers on noticing the parked vehicle beat sathe and vanzara and dragged them into the bushes along the expressway they snatched vanzaras gold bracelet and cash they returned to