Nizamabad: Six smart phone snatchers held, 22 handsets seized

Hyderabad: The Nizamabad police on Tuesday arrested a six-member gang including a juvenile on charges of snatching smart phones from pedestrians.

The gang members had stolen 22 smart phones from pedestrians in the last six months by travelling on two motorcycles without number plates, said Nizamabad Police Comissioner KR Nagaraju. He said 22 stolen mobile phones and two motorcycles, all worth over Rs.3 lakh were recovered from the possession of the gang.

Nagaraju said the gang members would first scout for pedestrians speaking over the phone. Of the six gang members, two of them would come from behind and snatch the handset and hand it over to four other associates who were following them and escape.

In the same manner, the gang was snatching mobile phones from pedestrians in the district. The police identified the five gang members as Shaik Rafeeq (19), a painter, Shaik Zuber (19), a plumber, D Sanjay (23), a catering worker, Shaik Shabaz (26) and Shaik Irfan (22), both working as mason. At 3 pm on July 15, Rafeeq and Zuber noticed a pedestrian speaking over the phone at Nizamabad bus station. The duo came from behind and snatched the pedestrian’s mobile phone and gave it to their associates who were following them.

Based on a tip-off, the police nabbed the gang members at Sridevi theatre in Nizamabad on Tuesday morning. Rafeeq, Shabaz and Zuber, all three were residents of Autonagar in Nizamabad while Irfan and Sanjay were residents of Hamalwadi in the district. The police requested those, who lost their mobile phone to contact them at One Town police station with relevant documents to get the handset.