Interstate gang of notorious thieves busted

Central Chronicle News
Bhilai, Feb 19: With the arrest of a notorious thief and identification of three accomplices, police claimed to have busted an interstate gang of notorious thieves. The accused had committed thefts at four different shops in Durg city in a single night. The accused has been arrested from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
Search operations are on to trap the absconding accused. The gang used to conduct recce before committing the thefts. The gang of three – four members used to lift the shop shutters from the middle to trespass into the shops and commit theft.
They had earlier committed thefts in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra. Durg Police chased the accused in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and finally succeeded in arresting one of the gang members.
Addressing media persons here at Durg on Friday, ASP (City) Rohit Jha and CSP (Durg) Vivek Shukla informed that thefts occurred at four different business establishments in Durg city on the intervening night of January 14 & 15. In all the incidents, the accused had pulled up the rolling shutters from middle to create a gap between the shutter and the floor and had trespassed into the shop from this cavity.
The unidentified thieves had burgled Rs 10000 cash from Madhyani Autos of Abhishek Walicha situated in Old Bus Stand; Rs 1.80 lakh from Navkar Medicals of Nikhil Jain situated in Priyanka Complex; Rs 50000 from Jain Medicals of Kishore Jain and Rs 63000 from Puran Sankhla’s NavkarBartanBhandar situated in Pachripara, Durg.
Considering the modus operandi of the crimes and after conducting crime scene investigation, SP Prashant Thakur expressed suspicion of involvement of some outsider gang. On directions of SP Prashant Thakur, CCTV Footages of the places near crime scenes were minutely examined.
Another team of Durg Police scanned the footages of the hotels, lodges, dhabas and restaurants. After analysing the footages of several cameras, the investigation team found four suspects. Then the cops started following the footages of the places where these suspects were seen moving.
After committing the crime, the suspects were seen hiring an auto-rickshaw and moving towards Gurudwara Triangle. On checking the cameras of Durg, police found that they had moved towards Raipur. Then the suspects were seen in footage of Raipur Bus Stand.
Thereafter the accused were seen moving towards Medical College Hospital Raipur bus stop and boarding a bus for Nagpur. Police shared the pics and videos of the suspects and information about modus operandi with its counterparts in other states. In the meanwhile, Durg Police came to know that the modus operandi of lifting the shutter was practiced by a gang which is active in Meerut and Delhi areas.
A 5-member team was immediately sent to Delhi for searching the suspects. At Delhi, police team came to know that a person who appears similar to one of the suspects resides in village Kithore of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Police team moved to Kithore and then with the help of local police, his mobile location was traced and the suspect was taken in custody.
During interrogation, he confessed to have committed thefts in Durg. He was identified as Mohammad Salman (30) son of Mohammad Shauukin a resident of village Kithore, Meerut (UP). He disclosed the names of three other those who were involved in the crime. Police tried to search them but they had already absconded.
The absconding accused have been identified as Mohammad Rashid alias Gabru (46) son of Mohammad Musahid a resident of village Kithore, Meerut (UP); Mohammad Aashif (26) son of Mohammad Sattar a resident of village Sirsi, District Sambhal (UP) and Mohammad Nafees (45) son of Mohammad Jamil a resident of village Radhna, Meerut (UP).
The accused Mohammad Salman has been brought to Durg in transit remand. Inspector Rajesh Bagde, SI Pawan Dewangan, ASI Lakhan Lal Sahu, Head Constable Rajendra Wankhede, Head Constable (Cyber Cell) Chandra Shekhar Banjir, Constable Javed Khan, ChitrasenSahu, Shaukat Hayat Khan, Farukh Khan and Dheerendra Yadav played vital role in arresting the accused.