VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada police on Monday arrested a notorious three-member burglary gang and recovered gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 6 lakh. Addressing mediapersons, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP- Law and Order) V Harshavardhan Raju said the accused — Rathlavath Shankar Naik, 25, Mallacheruvu Rama Rao, 51, and Kosuri Srinivasa Rao, 53 — hail from Telangana. They reportedly became friends while serving jail term for offences committed in the past. They formed a gang and committed several crimes in order to meet their luxuries, the DSP said.
The police said the gang members had earlier committed more than 10 crimes at various places such as Hyderabad, Guntur and Ongole.They further shifted their base to Vijayawada and rented a house in Ayodhyanagar under Patamata police station limits.
Shankar Naik and Rama Rao conducted recce in the morning and committed offence by breaking into houses in the night, while Srinivasa Rao acted as a seller for the stolen properties in Hyderabad.
Explaining their modus operandi, the DCP said, “the gang members used to collect information about individual houses situated in isolated locations in the guise of salesman to assess the security and details of the family members.”
The gang committed four crimes in Patamata police station limits, two in Satyanarayanapuram and one in Ibrahimpatnam and Ajit Singh Nagar, said the DSP.