An inter-state gang comprising four persons who were involved in a series of house burglaries in the city and other parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were arrested by Hyderabad police here on Tuesday.
The city task force team along with Chennai city police cracked seven house burglary cases, including three reported in Nungambakkam police station in Chennai and recovered 1.7 kg of platinum, diamond and gold ornaments worth ₹1.05 crore from their possession.
Thirty-four-year-old Karri Satish, an cab driver from Visakhapatnam along with his associates Nunsavath Narendar Naik (24) of Nalgonda and Pacchapati Srinivas (22) of Kadapa used to break into houses in posh localities and decamp with items valued in lakhs of rupees, said Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar.
They used to sell the booty to a milk vendor Kondreddy Sudheer Kumar Reddy (27) from Mochampet.
The accused came in contact with each other at Chanchalguda central prison last year, where they formed a gang and after release from jail, they committed the offences.
Mr Kumar said that the accused used to commit the crime in the night after surveying the posh localities and break open locked house or gain entry to the house by opening windows with the help of screwdrivers, cutting players and iron rods. Karri Satti Babu, who is a habitual burglarer was previously involved in 48 cases in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Suryapet and Bengaluru.
“He frequently shifted his shelter to avoid police surveillance and commit the offences. His associates Naik and Srinivas monitored the surroundings to alert him. Later, they used to flee in the car of house owner with the stolen property.,” Mr Kumar said.
According to the Commissioner, the accused were caught near Secunderabad railway station while they were going to Mumbai to dispose of the stolen property. The apprehended accused along with seized property were handed over to Banjara Hills police for further investigation.
A team comprising Muthuvelu Pandey, ACP, Nungambakkam, Sundaram, Inspector of Nungambakkam, Chennai and Venugopal Reddy, inspector Nellore town helped the city police to solve the case.