TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: In a major breakthrough, Goa police have arrested eight members of three gangs and property valued at lakhs of rupees was recovered from them, Saturday.
The first arrest was of the notorious Rs 10 note gang member S Rukmagataan (42) who was caught red-handed by locals, while he attempted to loot a female driver near Thomas Cook Saturday morning and handed over to the police.
The alert public had earlier nabbed two other gang members of his gang– Surendra Prakash and a juvenile – on Feb 21, in the capital.
“A person saw Rukmagataan dropping Rs 10 note on the road and knocking at the car window (in a bid to divert the attention of his prospective victim and subsequently loot her). The person ran towards the car and captured the theif,” SDPO Umesh Gaonkar told a press conference.
The bag lifter was thrashed by the public before being handed over to the police. Police say he was also involved in the three other bag lifting cases on Feb 21. The Trichur-based gang has in the past successfully relieved people of several lakhs.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the gang members deposit the looted money in Axis bank ATM, for their family to withdraw back at their native.
In the second theft case, four persons were detained on suspicion from a city hotel and subsequently found with a broken gold chain having a Lord Ganesh pendant, seemingly belonging to a child.
The accused are identified as Digambar Jadhav (47), Ankush Jadhav (35), Bajirao Sukale (24) and Ramesh Pawar (20), all hailing from Pune. The Panjim police inspector Rajendra Prabhudesai said news clipping of a Marathi daily giving details of religious feasts and zatras across the State, was recovered from them.
“The thieves would rip gold chains off people’s neck using a cutter at crowded places,” the inspector said.
While the Pune counterparts were contacted to trace the accused men’s antecedents, police are verifying whether incidents of similar modus operandi were reported at other places.
In the third catch, another gang of young thieves – Laxmidas Mangueshkar (21), from Neura, Nagesh alias Nagu Naik (19) from Santa Cruz and Bhalchandra Murgaonkar (23) from Divar, were arrested for allegedly burgling an electronic goods worth over than Rs 15 lakh, on the intervening night of Dec 18-19, 2012 from a showroom located at Campal.
The CCTVs installed in the store had shown that one of them was dressed in woman’s clothes to avoid suspicious while the other had covered his face. “On thorough follow ups, we nailed the three persons who confessed to their offence,” Prabhudesai said. Property worth Rs 1.06 lakh has been recovered so far.
