5-member gang had ‘hand’ in 105 cases: Cops

Delhi Police, on Sunday, arrested five members of a gang who were involved in as many as 105 cases of robberies and snatchings in South Delhi and Gurgaon. With the help of CCTV footage, police identified the suspects and later arrested them.

The accused have been identified as Jagdish (27), Ashok (28), Manoj (22), <g data-gr-id="33">Pinku</g> (28) and Satish Chand (29). According to senior police officials, a large number of snatching and robbery incidents were being reported in the area of South district. Police were on look out for such criminals who have created havoc in the area. On Friday itself, three incidents of snatching were reported in Mehrauli within a span of one hour. The crimes were committed by bike-borne criminals.

“The local police scrutinised the routes adopted by the suspects while fleeing. Such routes were surveyed through already installed CCTV cameras. Footage from one particular colony threw up certain clues about the suspects which were further developed with the help of local intelligence”, police said on Sunday. During the analysis of the footage and other inputs, it was seen that the criminals from <g data-gr-id="39">Jhinjhana</g> area might have committed these crimes. Accordingly, one of the teams went to Burari and surrounding areas. On specific input, the team conducted <g data-gr-id="41">raid</g> at a place in the area of Swaroop Nagar and found four persons in suspicious condition. They were put through an extensive questioning and shown the CCTV footage on which they confessed to <g data-gr-id="40">have</g> committed these crimes.

During interrogation, it was also disclosed by these criminals that after release from the jail, accused Manoj and Ashok along with other accomplice had committed more than 105 incidents of robbery and snatching in the area of Delhi and Gurgaon. One of the accused Ashok is apparently their gang leader who has a previous history of involvements in 16 such cases of robbery in the year 2009 alone.

Police informed that the modus operandi of <g data-gr-id="30">gang</g> was that they used to operate in the morning from 6 am to 9.30 am. Their targets were mostly alone or single middle-aged women near parks, temples and schools. Later in the morning, they made office-going ladies their targets.