CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police (GCP) busted a gang of eight that targeted the crowd at the Chepauk stadium on Friday, stealing dozens of mobile phones. The police said that they received more than 20 complaints of mobile theft on Friday during the Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) match.
The gang of eight, including four minor boys, was from Jharkhand and West Bengal and had arrived in the state specifically for this reason, police investigations found. Three of them purchased tickets on the black market to gain entry inside the stadium, while the rest of the gang coordinated with them from the outside.
Rajkumar (22), Akash Noniya (23), Vishal Kumar Matto (22), Gobind Kumar (21), and the four minors were arrested from two lodges in Vellore on Monday.
A case was filed against them at Triplicane police station here.A senior police officer said, “We received over 20 complaints from the Chennai Singam IPL QR Code system that was launched specially to enhance safety of the public at the stadium in Chepauk during the IPL matches.” The system allowed spectators to register complaints during the match by scanning a QR code.
Police said that using the CCTV footage from the stadium, they generated images of the suspects with the help of the information provided by the victims. With the generated photos, the police tracked the movement of the suspects and arrested them in Vellore.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the gang targeted cricket matches, religious festivals and places where large crowds gather. The gang went to the stadium in Bengaluru during the RCB vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) match on March 22 from Vellore and stole the mobile phones there. After a few days, they came to Chennai on Friday from Vellore. A total of 38 mobile phones were recovered from them.
After an inquiry, the four men were sent to judicial remand, while the minor boys were sent to an observation home.