Sketch of dacoity at Muthoot Finance (MF) branch in Mailardevpally here in Cyberabad was prepared somewhere in Gujarat, the investigators surmise.
A similar and unsuccessful attempt to target the MF branch was made in Gujarat a month ago while the Chevrolet Tavera in which the gang fled after the vain bid was also found to have been stolen from that State. All these clues suggested the gang was directly or remotely connected to Gujarat. A special team had rushed there to bust the gang stitching up the other leads available.
The vehicle was stolen reportedly from Wadi of Gujarat a few months ago. “The gang started using a fake Telangana number plate not to get tracked,” Cyberabad police said.
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In the sensational case of looting more than 40 kg of gold jewellery from the MF branch at Ramachandrapuram in December 2016, the offenders had used a black Mahindra Scorpio, stolen from Maharashtra and they got the engine and chassis numbers of that vehicle erased.
“They are intact in Tavera and hence we could quickly identify that it was a stolen one,” a police officer said. The clear images of the four dacoits whose video footage was recorded by surveillance cameras were sent to National Crime Records Bureau and crime wings of other States.
So far, there was no clue about their identity. The gang had been moving in Telangana for the past three weeks. Before attempting the dacoity, the gang stopped by a roadside 'dhabha' at Isnapur close to the Outer Ring Road on two consecutive mornings.
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Video footage of near-by toll-gates suggested that they had been moving in that area for the past several days.
Searches at Happy Homes complex in Rajendranagar, which started from Tuesday night after the Tavera was abandoned there, continued till early hours of Wednesday.
However, the police could not stumble upon any leads in spite of thoroughly combing the complex containing more than 700 flats.