Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Gangs on the rampage

They say a criminal knows no borders. With the spurt in burglaries, robberies and murders in the city and suburbs in the last few days, the spotlight has now turned on inter-State criminal gangs that operate under the cover of the city's large cosmopolitan population.

In a series of robberies, which began on Tuesday, one person was killed and more than 90 sovereigns of gold jewellery were stolen with the masked assailants giving the police the slip.

The first to be reported was from a house at Korattur, where a six-member gang entered and threatened a 30-year-old woman at knifepoint and took away jewellery and cash. A similar episode ensued at Tirumangalam, barely 24 hours later. The target was the residence of a businessman. Intruders tied up the family members and escaped with jewellery and cash. The latest in the series to be reported was at Beemanthangal near Sriperumbudur on Thursday. The four-member (reportedly Hindi-speaking) gang entered the house of a contractor after drugging his dog. The contractor's teenaged daughter who tried to raise an alarm was killed.

The police now say the criminals behind the attacks in the city and Sriperumbudur are members belonging to two different gangs. "The gang that operated in the city (Korattur and Tirumangalam) are wanted criminals belonging to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, while the ones who operated in Sriperumbudur are suspected to be a north Indian gang," said C. Sylendra Babu, Joint Commissioner of Police, North. "We have already identified members of the Andhra Pradesh gang based on the information provided by the victims," said Mr. Babu.

According to the police, the gang, which ventures out mostly in the night, has a unique style of operation. They target houses with fewer male members. They do this by shining torchlights on windowpanes and pelting stones; the assumption being that if there are any male members they will reveal themselves.

Once the target is decided, they enter the house by removing the kitchen grilles.

Psychological intimidation is the next step. They wake up the senior most member of the family and through him threaten other inmates to keep mum as they carry out the burglary. "Once they carry out a robbery they immediately shift their area of operation. The city's cosmopolitan population also offers them a convenient cover," said Mr. Babu.

Interestingly, the problem of inter-state criminals is not a recent phenomenon; police records show that inter-state criminal gangs have been operating in the city from the late seventies. A gang from West Bengal specialised in opening the shutters and escaping with the booty in the seventies.

The next big gang to target the city and its outskirts was the one led by Gentiah Krishnaiah of Stuartpuram in Andhra Pradesh.

The members of this masked gang attacked inmates while committing crimes. However they ceased operating when their identity became known to the police.

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