The City police have taken into custody three men from Bihar from the Kota Central Jail in Rajasthan on charges of theft of mobile phones from various shops in the city.
The accused have been identified as Ram Babu Ray, Anil Kumar, and Arun Shah.
According to the police, the gang had stolen mobile phones to the tune of ₹20 lakh from Phone 4 communications at Over Bridge, phones to the tune of ₹30 lakh from Phone Club at Plamoodu, and also made an attempt to break into Smartphone Cafe at Thampanoor.
They have also allegedly stolen mobile phones to the tune of ₹30 lakh from Kollam and phone for ₹13 lakh from Palarivattom in Kochi.
They were lodged at the Kota Central jail for other cases of theft. On questioning, the accused revealed that they had also conducted similar operations in Vadodara in Gujarat, Ujjain, Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh, Gorakhpur, Siliguri, Kota, and Udaipur.
200-member group
Around 200 persons are part of the group, working as separate gangs in different areas. The stolen mobile phones are taken to the gang leaders in Bihar, who then sell them across the border in Rajasthan. Some of the gang leaders have even opened mobile phone shops in Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar, the accused revealed.
Eight members of the gang were lodged in Kota Centraljail, while six were in the Alwar jail, and 12 in Rajkot jail. They were brought to Thiruvananthapuram and will be produced in the court on Thursday.
