Two held for theft of 432 phones from Hyderabad shop

Hyderabad: Two men from Jharkhand have been arrested by police for theft of 432 mobile phones from an electronic showroom on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Rachakonda Police on Thursday announced the arrest of two members of notorious inter-state gang ‘Alam gang’ while search was on for four others who were absconding.

With these arrests, police claimed to have solved the case relating to the theft which was committed on the intervening night of September 20 and 21.

The accused broke into Bajaj Electronics store at ECIL X Roads and committed theft of 432 mobile phones of various brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Apple worth Rs 70 lakh.

A case of theft was registered on September 21 at Kushaiguda police station of Rachakonda Police Commissionerate.

On examining the CCTV footage, police found that three unknown persons wearing face masks entered the store on September 20 around 11 p.m. by breaking open the false ceiling on the first floor of the shop. They made away with the mobile phones at 3 a.m.

As part of the investigations, 10 teams of Kushaiguda division of Rachakonda police scanned CCTV footage from over 500 cameras along the route taken by the accused to reach the shop. The police also identified the autorickshaw they used for travel between ECIL and Ambedkar Nagar.

After identifying the accused, a police team was sent to Jharkhand where it arrested main accused Sattar Shaik (40) on September 30 with the help of Sahaebgunj district police.

A second team was sent to West Bengal where it conducted a raid in coordination with the three police stations of Malda district and apprehended Asidil Shekh (20) on October 2.

Police seized Rs 80,000 cash and two mobile phones from the accused.

During the interrogation, the duo confessed to the crime committed along with four others Sayeed, Asharaul, Badruddin and Beullah, all residents of Jharkhand. Police said the efforts were on to nab the four absconding accused.

According to police, the accused are part of ‘Alam gang’ which usually target large establishments like banks, jewellery shops and mobile phone shops during night hours. The accused break into shops by making holes in the walls or roofs and after committing thefts, they take shelter in areas close to the borders with countries like Bangladesh. This makes it difficult for police to apprehend the offenders and recover the stolen property as the same is sent to countries like Bangladesh and Nepal.

Police said Sattar was involved in thefts in Mumbai, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat. The gang was also involved in theft of gold jewellery worth Rs 2 crore from the Union Bank of India branch at Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh on May 9, 2022.