VISAKHAPATNAM: In a major catch, the city police on Friday arrested five members of a gang and a 43-year-old person in two sperate cases, who have been involved in many theft cases reported in the city and district limits. The cops recovered valuables worth around Rs 23 lakh from the gang members, apart from several important land documents.
The arrested have been identified as Ganta Srinu (29) from Isukathota, S Satyanarayana (24) and G Chinna (27) from Narsipatnam, Michael Ramu (26) and Ashok Kumar Mahapatro (30) of Jajpur district in Odisha.
“The gang led by Ganta Srinu was involved in 18 offences, including the 16 reported from the city.
The offences include bag snatchings after diverting attention of people coming out of banks, bag cuttings in auto-rickshaws, pick-pocketing and bag lifting,” city police commissioner T Yoganand told the media here.
Explaining the modus operandi, CCS inspector Raghuveer Vishnu said that the gang would cut bags and wallets of commuters by a specially made two-inch sharp knife. The accused also used the same knife to open the boot of cars and take away the valuables.
In one case, the gang snatched away bag of a police constable at Muralinagar.
In another, they stole the bag of a person near a bank by diverting his attention.
Police said that the accused formed a team and started with pick-pocketing offences in 2006 and then gradually honed their skills in bag snatching and attention diversion related crimes. A few offenders were also wanted in pick-pocketing cases, said Yoganand.The police recovered 660 gram gold, 6 kg silver and Rs 8.3 lakh in cash, all worth Rs 23.23 lakh from the accused.
Jewellery store theft case cracked
The crime team police on Friday arrested A Subba Rao (43) in the case of a six-member gang snatching the bags from a jewellery shop at Tagarapuvalasa. The gang fled away with 516 tola of gold worth Rs 51 lakh in 2015.
Police said that Subba Rao, along with his associates, was involved in 16 offences reported from Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. He used to sell the stolen property in Jajpur in Odisha.
The police also said that they had arrested the other accused in the case that was registered at Bheemili police station.
The cops recovered 1,240 grams of gold worth Rs 10.7 lakh, document of a land which was purchased in Jajpur.