Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Robbery cases: cops bank on fingerprints

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD DEC. 27. The police are banking on fingerprints collected at the scene of offence and modus operandi of the culprits to crack the robbery cases of Rajlakshmi jewellery shop at Abids and Rs. 1.62 lakhs cash from Santoshnagar eSeva centre on Friday.

Police sources said that several fingerprints were collected at the Rajlakshmi jewellery shop as well as the eSeva centre. "If these match with any of the known offenders, that would be our main clue," an investigating officer said. However, fingerprints matching and verification would take at least two days, it is learnt.

Going by the modus operandi adopted by the armed offenders at the jewellery shop, the police suspect involvement of Sandeep Kataria gang members who were charged with looting a shop in 2001 at Siddiamberbazar. "However, we cannot say anything now and inquiries revealed that Sanjay was still in Chanchalguda jail," the Hyderabad Police Commissioner, R.P. Singh, said.

Inquiries revealed that along with Sandeep, three of his associates - Sikander Ali, Vinay Kumar Shukla and Nirmal- were in Chanchalguda jail. While three of his gang members - Shyam Sundar, Phool Singh and Mohan Paswan- jumped bail, another three - Venkatesh, Sangram Singh and K. Shyam- were attending the trial. Apart from Sandeep Kataria's gang, the police are probing the possible involvement of another notorious `Hamid' gang. Efforts are on to trace these members.

The hopes of the police that the two cell-phones (one belonging to the shop owner and other to a customer) taken away by the dacoits from the jewellery shop would provide important leads, were dashed on Saturday. Signals coming from one instrument suggested that it was lying in Abids post-office area. "Probably, the dacoits threw it away. Its ringing but nobody is lifting," a police officer said. Another phone was switched off. "Either they threw that instrument too away or switched it off deliberately," he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• 12-hour ordeal for air passengers
• Robbery cases: cops bank on fingerprints
• eSeva centre sans armed security
• We are doing a thorough job: Commissioner

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu