The Central Crime Station (CCS) police on Friday nabbed four members of an attention diversion gang and recovered ₹ 23.2 lakh worth stolen booty from their possession.
The police also arrested a businessman from Odisha for purchasing the stolen property from the gang. The arrested were identified as Ganta Srinu (29), resident of Vizag, S. Satyanarayana (24) and Ganta Chinna (27), both natives of Narsipatnam and Michael Ramu (26), native of Jajpur in Odisha and 30-year-old Ashok Kumar Mahapatro who owns a jewellery shop at Jajpur.
City police commissioner T. Yoganand said the gang had committed 18 attention diversion offences, including 16 in the city in the past few months, targeting victims exiting from banks, travelling in share autos and city buses.
Explaining the modus operandi , Inspector of CCS Raghuveer Vishnu said members of the gang carry a specially made two-inch sharp blade with them and they use the blade to cut bags of passengers and steal the valuables (gold, silver and cash). By using the same blade, the gang used to open the trunk/boot of cars and bikes to loot the valuables.
