Nepali gangs keep cops in Hyderabad on toes

Hyderabad: Several burglary gangs, with the members being mostly from Nepal, are now giving sleepless nights to the police in the capital city, with the offenders getting employed as servants and security guards in private residences before decamping with valuables. In the last one year, at least 10 such offences were reported in the tri-commissionerates […]

Hyderabad: Several burglary gangs, with the members being mostly from Nepal, are now giving sleepless nights to the police in the capital city, with the offenders getting employed as servants and security guards in private residences before decamping with valuables.

In the last one year, at least 10 such offences were reported in the tri-commissionerates of Rachakonda, Hyderabad and Cyberabad with the worth of the gold, cash and jewellery stolen by these gangs running into crores. The toughest part of the investigation for the police is that the gangs are difficult to track down as they cross into Nepal soon after the offence.

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Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force Inspector S Raghavendra, explaining the modus operandi, said one of the gang members would initially get employed at the house and after gradually winning the trust of the employer, get more of the gang employed as a cook, security guard, driver or caretaker. “On getting an opportunity, the gang loots the house and flees the spot. It is difficult to nab them immediately as they sneak into Nepal or the North East States,” he said.

In some instances, the gangs gave food laced with sedatives to the families before committing the crime, while in some other cases, they waited for the families to go on a vacation or to functions.

In the last one year, cases involving Nepali gangs were reported in Narsingi, Raidurgam, Nacharam, Abid Road, Kushaiguda and Malakpet.

The police said that the main kingpins of the gang stay in Delhi and from there, they identify Nepalis working in other Indian cities and lure them into committing thefts at houses of their employers and connect them with the other gang members staying in the same city.

“All the gang members stay connected through social media and alert each other about the appropriate time to commit the offence, which is mostly when the owners go out,” Nampally Inspector Khaleel Pasha said.

“After studying the movement of the gangs, teams are now rushing to the border checkpoints and passing on information on the gangs to paramilitary forces. Due to the efforts, we were able to nab them before the gangs could escape into Nepal. Otherwise, getting them from Nepal can be a bit difficult due to diplomatic issues,” a senior official said.

The police have asked people to use the HawkEye application to upload and verify credentials of domestic helps and drivers before employing them. Identify proof should be collected by employers.

Police solve Raidurgam burglary case

The Cyberabad Police solved the Raidurgam burglary case and arrested a Nepali couple for the offence on Saturday. Police caught them near Sholapur railway station in Maharashtra and recovered 1.1kg of gold ornaments and diamonds and Rs 7.2 lakh, all together worth Rs 68.2 lakh from them.

The arrested persons were L Bahadur Sahi alias Laxman (32), a watchman and K Pavitha alias Pana (26), a domestic helper, both from Kalikot district of Nepal.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra said the couple joined work at Govinda Rao’s house at Telecom Nagar in Gachibowli about five months ago as watchman and domestic helper through one Yamlal from Nepal. “They stayed in the servant quarters and acted loyal to their employer and gained his confidence,” Raveendra said.

On September 18, Rao left the house to attend a ceremony at Srisailam and asked the couple to take care of the house.

“The same midnight, the couple removed the CCTV camera cables and entered the house by removing the window grill with an iron rod. They broke the master bedroom door and opened the almirah using the key. They found out the locker key beneath sarees, using which they stole cash, gold and diamond ornaments worth Rs 61 lakh,” he said, adding Laxman was a regular viewer of crime series on YouTube.

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