HYDERABAD: Task Force sleuths nabbed a two-member attention diversion gang and recovered 65 stolen Gadwal sarees and two mobile phones worth Rs 1.70 lakh.
The duo, hailing from Karnataka, were nabbed near a saree showroom at Sindhi Colony in Secunderabad.
They stole the sarees from a Kurnool-based saree businessman recently.
The accused-Hakender Rupa alias Shashikala alias Kala and Lawrence Gajendran alias Lawrence alias Arun-hail from Bangalore and are into the saree business.
Rupa contacted a saree businessman from Kurnool district, Ravi, and placed an order to purchase large quantity of Gadwal silk sarees. Ravi procured sarees from weavers at a low price and brought them to Hyderabad.
On March 31, Rupa called Ravi to a guest house at Banjara Hills to strike a deal. As per their plan, the other accused, Lawrence, also came to the city and stayed at Nav Bharath lodge near Paradise.
Rupa initially planned to flee away with the sarees on the pretext of showing the materials to her customers.
As Ravi refused to hand over the material, she took him to Nav Bharath lodge on the pretext of showing the sarees to a customer. She asked Ravi to stay at reception counter and went to the room and handed over the sarees to Lawrence.
Rupa, meanwhile, took Ravi to the nearby Paradise hotel for lunch. “When Ravi went to wash his hands, Rupa fled from the spot and also asked Lawrence to leave the hotel with the sarees,” Task Force DCP V. B.
Kamalasan Reddy said in a release today.
On a tip-off, the duo were arrested at Sindhi Colony and handed over to the Ramgopalpet police for further investigation.