With the arrest of five members of an inter-State chain-snatching gang, the Rachakonda police claimed to have detected 38 cases reported in Hyderabad and various districts in Andhra Pradesh and recovered 226 grams of gold ornaments worth ₹10 lakh from their possession. Central Crime Station IT Cell team led by Sridhar Reddy Mamilla also seized ₹1.70 lakh cash and a Toyota Etios car, all worth ₹8.7 lakh.
The accused are Syed Basha alias Sayeed (33), a car driver, Shaik Ayub (35), Shaik Mohammed Khaleed (35), a cabbie, their aide Nagollu Shashidhar Reddy (28) and stolen property receiver Patan Jaffer Khan (38), all residents of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh.
According to the police, the accused used to come to the city, commit the offences and head back to Kadapa with the booty.
After a series of chain-snatchings, cases were reported under Medipally police station recently. Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat constituted special teams consisting of CCS LB Nagar, IT Cell and Medipally police, who within no time apprehended the accused with technical clues collected with a continuous hunt by analysing huge data of CCTV footages.
Police said that the IT team tracked the video footages for several kilometres in the city to get clues that ultimately led to the arrest in the wee hours of Friday. On questioning, they confessed to committing 36 chain-snatchings and two vehicle thefts across Telangana and AP for the last one-and-a-half-year. The gang has committed offences in Rachakonda Commissionerate, and Tirupati Urban, Vijayawada, Nellore and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
