Hyderabad: A 10-member gang of thieves stole 81 trucks from the city and nearby districts in three years and sold the vehicle parts after dismantling them.
The gang, led by 53-year-old Mohammed Ayub alias Bada Ayub, stole trucks parked on the roadside at night. Earlier, Ayub, an autorickshaw driver from Mahmoodnagar of Kishanbagh, used to steal cattle from villages.
After his arrest in one such case, he formed a gang. The gang was finally arrested by the Cyberabad police on Monday midnight.
Cops recovered a few vehicles, vehicle parts, lakhs of rupees and tools like gas-cutters that were used to dismantle the trucks. Police said the recovered material was worth more than Rs 1 crore. Four members of the gang are still absconding and efforts are on to apprehend them.
Cyberabad police chief C.V. Anand said that the gang dismantled the vehicles in a hideout at Ghousenagar in Chandrayangutta and transported them to a wholesale buyer Devasree Ispath Pvt Ltd at Yellikanta in Shadnagar.
The police said Ayub was arrested many times by police and was sent to jail in Mahbubnagar and Cyberabad.
“In 2012, he started stealing trucks along with his gang. They usually set out at midnight from Chandr-ayangutta in their Innova car and roamed around the city and on the outskirts looking for parked lorries.
When they found trucks without drivers or cleaners, the gang would start the vehicles with a screw driver and take it to their hideout where they would dismantle them,” explained Mr. nand.
The commissioner said that the gang had stolen 81 vehicles, 41 tippers, 37 lorries and three tankers, worth nearly Rs 1.15 crore, till now.
