The Basavanagudi police arrested a gang of three allegedly involved in over 27 housebreak thefts and recovered 3.2 kg of gold valuables among other articles worth ₹1.8 crore.
The accused, identified as Bilal Mondal, 33, from West Bengal, Saleem Rafiq Sheikh, 43, from Maharashtra, and Mohammed Jalik from Bihar used to come to the city by flight, stay in a rented apartment in Parappana Agrahara, and purchase second-hand bikes on commercial online sites to recce locked houses, the police said.
They would then break into the houses and steal valuables and take them away to Mumbai or Hyderabad where they would dispose them and share the money.
Based on a series of thefts, the south division police led by Harish Pandey, DCP, formed a special team and collected fingerprints and CCTV footages to identify the accused. The police analysed over 500 footages to track down the accused to their rented apartment for four months before they were caught. Based on their confession, the police have recovered the valuables.
The accused are habitual offenders arrested earlier by the city police and remanded to Parappana Agrahara in separate cases, officials said. In jail, they ganged up and formed a team and after being released on bail, they began to operate since two-and-a-half years, a police officer said.
