Notorious burglar gangs on prowl in Hyderabad

In recent months, notorious criminals from various States have been active in the city committing several offences    

Hyderabad: Criminal gangs who are masters in committing burglaries are getting attracted to Hyderabad with the city being in the news and receiving admiration for its business hubs and IT corridors.

Notorious gangs from far-off villages situated in various Indian States are travelling to the city to carry out a heist. In recent months, gangs including the Chaddi gang, Irani gang, Bawaria gang and Dhar gang have been active in the city committing several offences. In the majority of the cases, the gang members were caught while in some cases the investigation is under progress.

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V Arvind Babu, DCP (Crimes), Rachakonda, said the gangs keep moving around different cities, particularly metros and commit crimes. “These are professional gangs and come in groups. They conduct well-planned offences targeting rich or middle-class families and leave the city after committing multiple offences within a short period,” he said. In the south, women wear more gold ornaments and thus gangs prefer these cities when it comes to snatching gold chains, a police official pointed out.

Several groups from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, have been involved in criminal activities for decades.

Bawaria gang

The Bawarias are members of a nomadic tribe from Uttar Pradesh and are involved in various crimes nationwide.

Bawarias are infamous for chain snatching. The modus operandi of the gang is that the members arrive by train and steal a motorcycle. Then they go on a chain-snatching spree targeting women at isolated places before parking the vehicle at some deserted place and either escaping to another city or taking shelter at some safe place. Some gangs have a local contact to help them in evading arrest and keep the stolen property.

The Bawarias also have a considerable presence in Haryana and Rajasthan. Police records say the gang is notorious for attacking houses located close to roads or railway tracks if their motive is to commit robberies or burglaries.

Chaddi gang

The Chaddi Baniyan gang members operate wearing only their underwear and with face masks and smearing themselves in oil or mud to protect their identities. During the day, they gather at transport hubs or unsused urban spaces. They conceal themselves as beggars or common labourers to identify potential houses to rob. Before moving on to a different town, the gangs attempt to steal from multiple homes.

Dhar gang

The Dhar gang, whose members are basically from Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, over a period scattered around different districts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Dhar district is also infamous for illegal countrymade arms manufacturing units and smuggling syndicates.

The gang comes in small groups of three to five persons to a locality, spends the day in an open place and conducts a recce of the target houses. They consume liquor and armed with hand tools and other weapons, they break into locked houses and decamp with valuables. Generally, the gang commits offences between 12 midnight and 4 am and moves in sharing autorickshaws to avoid suspicion. They scale through the compound wall of the houses and at times, attack the inmates of the house with weapons, if they try to resist them.

Irani gang

The gang is known to have its base in a few pockets of Karnataka and Maharashtra and is known for their modus operandi – chain snatching or masquerading as police or senior government officers and conning gullible victims. The gang has fluency in Hindi, Telugu and even English. The gang members identify potential victims and approach them at a lonely spot as friendly police officers.

On the pretext of advising them to keep their jewellery safe, they ask the victim to remove the jewellery and wrap it in a cover or handkerchief. Then, one of the gang members diverts the attention of the victim and that is when they strike.