HYDERABAD: It was Goa calling for three of the juveniles who escaped from the Observatory Home for Juveniles-in-conflict with Law at Saidabad. However, luck ran out for them, three weeks after their escape, when police finally nabbed them from Attapur in Hyderabad here.
Their roller coaster ride, once out of the state home, started when they stole three bikes, burgled four homes in Gachibowli, Rajendranagar and Jubilee Hills. They then mortgaged the gold with a woman in Dhoolpet and boarded a bus to Goa.
Spending five days there and emptying pockets by visiting massage parlours and pubs, they returned back to the city on May 20. Five days after they returned, the police caught the trio at Rajendranagar on Friday evening, just before they were about to burgle another home in Attapur.
When 12 boys managed to escape from Saidabad state home on May 7, they split into groups and had their own plans. While one of them returned to the home on the same day, four others came back to the home the following day. Meanwhile, one group of boys successfully reached Goa.
According to the Cyberabad police, the group of five boys headed by Bijanamaina Raghu, who turned major after escaping from the home, had stolen a bike parked at the home. When the vehicle stopped after travelling for some distance, they abandoned it and stole another bike. The five boys went to Karwan on that bike and stolen another bike from there to go to Golconda Fort and stayed in the fort's neighbourhood. In the morning four of them went to Gandipet while another went to his parents and surrendered at the observatory home.
The four juveniles then went to Gowlidoddi in Gachibowli and burgled a house during the night. The next morning, with the help of the mother of the juvenile boy who surrendered at the home, they mortgaged the stolen gold at Muthoot Finance in Marredpally for Rs 86,500 and gave Rs 10,000 from it to the boy's mother as commission. in the meantime, another boy identified as Naresh, who joined the juveniles group has run away with Rs 50,000 without informing his friends. With the remaining Rs 26,500, they purchased clothes and spent on booze.
The next day (May 9), four juvenile boys went to Kukatpally and attempted to burgle the house, but their efforts were foiled by the locals, and one among them was caught later by the Jeedimetla police following the alert. Raghu and the other two juveniles did not stop with that and burgled two houses at Jubilee Hills and Rajendranagar on May 11, and stole gold ornaments and watches from there, police said.
"One of the juvenile boys has a paramour from Dhoolpet. She mortgaged the stolen gold and gave the boys Rs 50,000, with which they went to Goa to have fun on May 14. They boozed and had body massages, had fun returned to the city on the morning of May 20, with empty pockets. When they again tried to burgle a house at Attapur on Friday (May 25), the police team in mufty has caught the three boys and also S Nandini, paramour of the juvenile and recovered some property," said the Cyberabad police in a release.
The police recovered 11 tolas gold, 5.3 gm silver, one bike, one mobile phone, a handy cam, one digital camera, seven wrist watches from them. The accused Raghu and Nandini have been arrested, while the juvenile boys have been produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, said the police.