JOIN USOnion robbers struck once again, this time in Nashik, breaking open a storehouse and fleeing with 2,000 kg of the vegetable, despite traders opting for high-tech measures and installing CCTV cameras.
The storehouse belongs to a farmer named Abasaheb Pawar, and is in the Pimparkhed village of Nashik district's Nandgaon taluka. Pawar has lodged a complaint with the Nandgaon police which is carrying out a detailed investigation.
“I had kept it (the onions) in the store room, but found sacks missing. On counting, I found 2,000 kg missing,” said Pawar.
On Saturday, a vegetable vendor from Mumbai’s Pratikshanagar area, Anand Naik, had lodged a complaint with the Wadala Truck Terminal police station over the theft of 700 kg of onion from his shop.
“I had ordered 1,000 kg of onion and a consignment of potatoes. The potatoes were untouched, but the robbers decamped with the onions,” he had said. The two back-to-back incidents of onion robbery has come as a shocker for farmers and the trading community.
“I have installed four CCTV cameras in my store,” said Worli-based Pramod Gupta, a leading onion trader of Mumbai. Raju, a retailer in Vasai, said he is extra careful now. “We are taking all precautions,” he said.
Meanwhile, auctions have been stopped at the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committees. The decision was taken in view of Jains challenging in Supreme Court the Rajasthan High Court order related to “Santhara”, the community’s centuries-old ritual of voluntary fasting unto death. The Jain community on Monday held protests across the country.