Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Police on trail of shutter-lifting gangs

VISAKHAPATNAM: They check into decent hotels in cities and towns and make a clean sweep of the swanky showrooms. The booty is not taken to the hotel room, but immediately sent back to their native place by their associates.

The series of shop-lifting cases that reported a few months ago left the city police baffled. Even before the police could act, the loot had been moved out of the city or State, leaving them clueless.

Fourth Town Inspector Ch. Penta Rao, while investigating a case, learnt that a Bihari gang had stayed at a posh hotel at Dwarakanagar before moving out of the city.

Verification of the admission register and interrogation of the hotel staff revealed that one of the gang members -- Mukesh Kumar Sinha -- had used a cell phone (9973060555).

The phone, traced to Bihar, was used 17 times to call the mobile No. 8651313164 and 13 times to call the mobile No. 9504950633, during the gang's stay in the city.

The Inspector reported the matter to Police Commissioner J. Purnachandra Rao and the latter directed him to find out the tower locations of these numbers and deploy parties to every railway station located between Itchapuram and Vijayawada.

While the tower location of the first cell was traced to Patna, the other two numbers were traced to a tower located at Pot Market, Secunderabad.

The city police concluded that the gang must have deputed one or two members to take the stolen property to Bihar while the remaining members must have proceeded to the Twin Cities to ‘try their luck there'. The information was passed on to the Hyderabad police, and 13 suspects were picked by them from a hotel at Pot Market. Interrogation of the accused revealed that they indulged in shutter thefts at various places in the State.

Modus operandi

The modus operandi of the gang is to break the shutter locks with heavy cutting pliers when there was no risk of people hearing the loud noise. When that was not possible, force would be applied to the centre of the shutter with a hydraulic jack. One or two of the gang members would enter through the opening and commit thefts. “We have posted two constables at Ghodasahan in East Champaran district of Bihar to track down the movements of the remaining gang members when they come with the loot. We are optimistic of nabbing the remaining members soon,” Mr. Penta Rao added.

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