Hyderabad: Started in a remote village called Sahada in Gujarat, the chaddi gang has travelled over 1,000 km to just burgle locked houses in the Telugu states. It was one man’s dream to loot the public and run the families of his community. Later his one gang split into four separate gangs and continued their looting spree across the country.
Dating back to early 2000s in Sahada, one Ramji Badhiya used to take his villagers to work as labourers to Surat on a contract basis. The earnings were never sufficient for them and soon he directed his gang of labourers to Delhi and then to the Southern Indian states to commit burglaries.
Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, Rachakonda police commissioner Mr Mahesh Bhagwat said Ramji Badhiya along with his wife and some labourers came to the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and started burglaries. Their prime target were locked houses located in the isolated areas.
“Till 2010, all the villagers of four communities Parmar, Sangda, Ganava, and Minama worked under Ramji’s leadership. After that, they split into four gangs led by Ramji, Dinesh, Suresh, and Kishan. They travel only in trains and for long distances and again split into three groups. Each group gets down at different places and fixes a common point to meet after certain days. Only two persons from the gang go for a recce, while the others stay back in the city outskirts, choosing thick bushes as their resting points. So far, 15 persons of the gang have been identified,” said the commissioner.
As seen in the videos that went viral, T. Ravi Kumar, inspector, Special Operations Teams, said that they remove their shirt and trouser, tie them to the hip, and tuck in their footwear, so that they can run faster.
“These people (gang members) cannot run faster wearing footwear. Kishan and Ramji are the only two people who can break any kind of lock at one go using an iron rod. If any gang member goes missing from the selected location, they wait at the meeting point and leave him behind if seen accompanied,” said the inspector who stayed in Gujarat for a month to nab the three burglars.
“Surprisingly, the gang has an advocate to bail them out and deal with all legal proceedings. The gang commits offences only during two seasons. Two months before Diwali and one month before Sankranti, as they believe that people purchase gold and get money during that time. They always go back to Sahada to celebrate Diwali grandly,” said the Commissioner.
He said that Ramji, the prime accused has to be nabbed to recover the stolen gold, as he is the in-charge of disposing of the property.
