TIRUPATI: In a dramatic six-day chase stretching across several States and closing in on the Bangladesh border, Tirupati police have busted an interstate gang involved in stealing high-end smartphones from large showrooms, and smuggling the booty across the international border.
The gang committed a film-style burglary at Sonovision Mobile Showroom on the AIR Bypass Road in Tirupati in the early hours of August 8 after drilling a hole through the wall. It decamped with 195 mobile phones and five Apple iPads worth around Rs 1.50 crore.
After constituting special teams headed by Additional SP (Admin/Crime in-charge) Arla Srinivasulu, Tirumala Additional SP I Ramakrishna and Tirupati DSP Bhaktavatsalam, Tirupati District Superintendent of Police L Subbarayudu personally monitored the probe.
Crime teams track suspects through technical clues
Crime inspectors, clues team, cyber crime and command control personnel were deployed to examine the crime scene, analyse the modus operandi and track the movements of the suspects through technical evidence.
Investigators soon found that the burglary bore the signature of an organised gang targeting large mobile showrooms. Teams were sent to Jharkhand, Nagpur and West Bengal, and the police maintained constant coordination with their counterparts in others States. The breakthrough came when investigators learnt that the suspects, carrying the stolen property, were moving towards Malda and the Bangladesh border.
Acting swiftly, the special teams intercepted the gang near Farakka in West Bengal, before the stolen goods could be moved out of the country. Within six days of the burglary, police arrested three key offenders and a receiver, and recovered 175 stolen mobile phones and five Apple iPads from their possession. The accused were produced before the Jangipur Magistrate on August 14. Police subsequently secured a transit warrant and brought the accused and the recovered property to Tirupati for the case trial.