PERNEM: Pernem Police on Monday arrested a gang of four, who were targeting tourists and arrested one Deependar Singh (20), native of Majhiyari, Madhya Pradesh; Jyoti Pralhad Soni, Anjilika Mukesh Jaiswal and Biki Barik.
According to the police, on July 18, one Ajith Kumar (22), native of Chennai filed a complaint at Pernem Police Station stating that two unknown male and two female persons with pretext of dropping the complainant to a hotel at Ponda from the Dabolim Airport, took him to Pernem and assaulted with fist blows on his head and snatched his wallet having cash Rs 2,000 and luggage bag containing documents. The alleged accused also threatened the complainant with dire consequences to kill and forced him to transfer Rs 22,000 in the account of one of the accused through Paytm.
Acting on the complaint, various teams were formed to trace the accused persons and white colour Swift car used by them. Through extensive technical surveillance and human intelligence the car was identified which led to identification of accused Deependar, whom the police detained from Calangute along with the car.
During the course of investigation, Deependar disclosed the names of other associates/co-accused persons involved. The police successfully obtained modus operandi of the gang wherein it was learnt that one of the accused had posted his phone number on Google search engine for booking hotels in the State. The complainant, who was scheduled to visit Goa for answering his exam obtained this number when he searched for a helpline number for booking hotels on the internet and found the alleged accused person’s phone number.
The police successfully recovered the bag belonging to the complainant containing his documents which was stolen by the alleged accused persons and also recovered the car used in the crime.
The accused are booked under Section 392, 394, 323, 506 (2) R/W 34 IPC.
