Police on Tuesday arrested three youths and took two juveniles into custody on charges of committing 10 burglaries in various areas of the city.
The accused have been identified as K. Shyam Kumar (19) and M. Badri alias Dancer Badri (19) from Visakhapatnam, B. Siva Sairam (19), a resident of Warangal district, and two juveniles aged 17 and 16. The gang reportedly committed the burglaries at Kancharapalem, Gopalapatnam, Pendurthi and in the vicinity of the airport.
Police Commissioner R.K.Meena said that the five-member gang noticed that several families had the habit of keeping their house keys at a secret place outside the house in order to allow other family members access to the house. Taking advantage of this widely prevalent practice, the burglars gained easy access to the houses and decamped with valuables and cash, Mr. Meena said.
“Among the 10 offences committed by this gang, five burglaries were based on this modus operandi. In the rest of the cases, they broke the locks open,” Mr. Meena said.
The Police Commissioner said that the 16-year old juvenile was addicted to drugs, and in order to sustain his expensive lifestyle, took to a life of crime. The other juvenile and the three youths joined him and formed a five-member gang and started to commit burglaries, Mr. Meena said.
About 215 grams of gold, 416.5 grams of silver, ₹60,500 in cash and a mobile phone were seized from the possession of the accused. Three of the accused have been sent to remand while the two juveniles have been sent to correction homes.
