The Chittoor sub-division police on Thursday seized gold ornaments worth about ₹50 lakh, silver articles, and small cash, from three different gangs involved in house break-ins, chain snatchings, and attention-diversion, and arrested eight accused, including four women.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) S. Senthil Kumar, and Deputy SP (Law and Order) N. Sudhakar Reddy, who produced the accused before the media here, said that in the first incident, a four-member “attention-diversion” gang of women aged between 35 and 55, three from Karnataka and one from Tamil Nadu, were nabbed at RTC bus station here, while they were moving suspiciously. After being taken into custody, their criminal record was revealed, leading to the seizure of one kg of gold from them. The gang was also wanted by the police in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he said.
In the second incident, the police nabbed two accused, including a suspended police constable of Tamil Nadu, at Tumgundram, on the outskirts of Chittoor. The duo was allegedly involved in chain-snatchings at several places in the Chittoor police sub-division. The suspended constable, Raghu, was also allegedly involved in similar offenses in Tamil Nadu. Their modus operandi was to stalk women at isolated places and strike at them.
In the third case, two youth from Tirupattur of Tamil Nadu, identified as Shaktivel and Raju, were nabbed at Rangampeta Cross on the Naidupeta-Puthalapattu NH, 20 km from here. The duo was allegedly involved in several offenses of house breakin-in the Chittoor division.
The officials said that some more offenders having links with the three gangs would be arrested soon. The accused were produced before the designated court and were remanded in the local sub-jail.
