Five cattle lifters nabbed by Crime Branch

Five members of an interstate gang involved in over 100 robberies, including cattle thefts, in Delhi and neighbouring areas have been arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Monday.

They were identified as Lukman (32), Kamru (27), Abid (25), Rashid Ali (23), and Shahazas (21).

All of them hails from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and always armed with master keys and housebreaking implements, said police.

As per the information gathered by the police officials of the crime team, they zeroed in the movements of alleged persons and in the intervening night of June 30 and July 1.

The raiding team took a strategic position in front of Bhajan Pura petrol pump, Main Wazirabad Road, North East Delhi and on the instance of the informer, the accused were apprehended while they tried to flee in Tata 407.

All the miscreants were involved in more than 100 incidents of robbery and theft of cattle and vehicles from a different area of Delhi-NCR.

Four country-made pistols along with ten live cartridges, master keys coupled with housebreaking implements and two stolen Tata 407 tempos, which were used in the commission of the crime were recovered from their possession, added police.

They are said to be a part of the Lukman Gang and have been robbing and stealing cattle for the past two years.

During their sustained interrogation, it was found that they used to steal the cattle in the evening time and use Tata 407 and Scorpio for the same.

The accused disclosed that the stolen cattle were handed over to one person named Manzoor in the area of Dasna, Massuri Ghaziabad in lieu of hefty money for slaughtering.

"As cattle is an easy catch and easily disposed of in cash, so they used stole it. The gang members mostly targeted remote areas of Delhi NCR and after the commission of crime fled from the spot in seconds," said DCP Crime Madhur Verma.