The Sudduguntepalya police have busted a three member gang of muggers targeting food delivery executives and robbing their phones.
The kingpin of the gang has been identified as Deepak Malik, a food delivery executive turned mugger, along with his associates Rakesh Paswan and Tonu Kumar Singh, from Assam, who worked as security guards in the day time and joined Deepak for robbery at night.
They used to target only delivery executives as they were easy targets. According to the police, the victims carry the phones in a mobile holder for navigation and ride electric bikes, thereby leaving them with little chance of chasing the thieves. Using this modus operandi, the accused operated in and around the south-east division in the last year and robbed 25 mobile phones from delivery executives working at night time.
The accused would send all the robbed mobile phones to Odisha to dispose of them and share the money and spend it lavishly. The accused, on July 7, confronted a food delivery executive and snatched the mobile phone mounted on the bike . Due to the impact, the victim fell down from bike and dislocated his shoulder.
The police meanwhile kept a tab on the stolen phone and luck ran out for the gang when Deepak tried to operate the phone with a different SIM card, which gave the police a major lead. Based on the information, the police arrested the accused and recovered 25 mobile phones worth ₹ 3.7 lahk from them.
DCP, south-east , C.K. Baba said the safety of gig workers in the city is a concern. The food delivery companies should ensure safety of gig workers and should have a SOPs in place, he said, adding that the companies should have GPS tracker system as a safety cover.
