The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Most wanted’ offender arrested

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Monday, Feb 11, 2008
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‘Most wanted’ offender arrested

L. Srikrishna

— File photo: A. Muralitharan

BURGLARY: The locked house that was ransacked during daytime in Sholinganallur recently.

CHENNAI: The city police arrested one of the city’s ‘most wanted’ burglars, Ghouse Basha (53), in Puducherry on Sunday. Basha, who hails from Vellore, was wanted in connection with a series of burglaries and house break-ins, all peculiarly committed in broad daylight. He has been operating for nearly 15 years.

Following complaints of jewels and other valuables missing from locked houses in T. Nagar, Kotturpuram and Teynampet areas, Commissioner of Police Nanchil G. Kumaran formed special teams to monitor the movements of suspects in residential localities during daytime.

Police sources said he committed the crimes after gathering inputs for a day or two or from different sources about locked homes in a particular apartment or on a street. Basha’s modus operandi was to overhear the conversation of those servicing apartments. It could be a milk vendor, newspaper boy, a maid servant or watchman in an apartment, who casually discussed the absence of some residents and their likely dates of return. In some cases, he also put his accomplices on the job to collect such information. Once he verified the details, Basha would strike. He used to carry a sharp weapon to break the lock, officers said.

Though the police had been pursuing Basha for several years, he evaded arrest because of a technicality — his fingerprints did not tally with those lifted from the crime scenes.

In many incidents, police were unable to find any concrete evidence, such as a fingerprint. However, one fingerprint match was found from a house that he broke into recently in T. Nagar. This was enough for the police to nab him. He was arrested in Puducherry, police said.

Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Commissioner of Police (T.Nagar) S. Lakshmi said Basha used to strike in daytime as he had some vision problem at night.

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