BANGALORE: As 23 members of the notorious Dandupalya gang, accused of committing rapes, murders and other crimes, are still absconding.
Together, they are wanted in 407 cases.
Between 1998 and 2002, the gang allegedly killed over 50 senior citizens, women and children at their homes by slitting their throats or hitting them on their heads with blunt weapons.
Bangalore Police DySP Chalapathi, then the inspector, arrested 14 members of the gang and 12 of them have been convicted by the court. One of them died in jail and one was released on bail.
Mysore police arrested five members of the gang but all five are now out on bail.
The double murder of Rangan and his wife in Jayanagar on January 2009 too is suspected to be the work of a gang that is the absconding splinter group of Dandupalya gang.
A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said the Dandupalya gang was now quiet because some of their gang members have been sentenced to death and some are facing life sentence.
Some more cases are still at trial in the court.
Their modus operandi
They identified secluded houses in the city and outskirts in the disguise of scavengers. After a recce, they zeroed in on a house and sent one of their women members to either seek water or beg for food.
After getting information on the members of the house, they attacked by breaking the doors with stones and murdered them before looting the booty.
They targeted elderly people and women alone at home because they were unlikely to offer resistance.
The men hid around the corner and once the door was open, barged inside and hit the victim with an iron rod.
Once the victim was unconscious, they would rob valuables and even rape them, irrespective of their gender.