HYDERABAD: Raising doubts over crime prevention efforts and preparedness to foil attempts of offences by the police department, a group of six unidentified men believed to be members of the notorious Chaddi Gang struck again at Kuntloor village of Hayathnagar on the city outskirts, leaving the residents terrorised. This is the second incident in less than a month in the same locality.
In the wee hours of Friday, they broke into two houses in the same neighbourhood. A total of around 17 tolas of gold and Rs 70,000 in cash were reportedly stolen from both the houses. In October, a similar gang broke into a house and looted around 10 tolas of gold and Rs 45,000 cash. They had also allegedly assaulted the inmates of the house.
The gang members first broke into the house of Srinivas and threatened the family members with weapons and looted 13 tolas of gold and some cash from their house. They locked the family members in a room and walked out and went to the opposite house of one Venkat Reddy. They forcefully took the earrings of Venkat Reddy’s mother and fled away injuring the woman.
On being informed, police teams rushed to the spot. Later, clues team and dog squad also visited the spot. The victims told police that a few members of the gang spoke in Telugu, while others communicated only through signs. Though there were reports that the work could be of the infamous ‘Chaddi Gang’, the police said they were yet to get any evidence regarding this.
Cops reached the spot an hour after our distress call, say residents
Even after the residents made a distress call to ‘Dial 100’, was there a delay in police arriving at the spot? While police claim that they had arrived at the spot within 15 minutes of the call, the residents says that police arrived after an hour and waited outside, when the gang members were inside the house, giving ample time for the offenders to walk out calmly and escape into the dark.
The allegations have raised doubts over police’s claims of a quick response mechanism. The current average response time is 8.5 minutes. In Hyderabad, the response time is less than five minutes. The victims alleged that the offenders broke into their house and were inside the house for over an hour. Police were immediately alerted, but they took long time. Responding to allegations, senior police officials said that there was no delay