Hyderabad: Gangs operating out of east and central India find Telangana’s districts more vulnerable, and also use them as quick escape routes to neighbouring states. Some 85 per cent of big robberies were committed by these ‘visiting gangs’ in 2016.
The stolen property can be easily disposed of in Chattisgarh, Odisha, and eastern states. Detection of these offences is much poorer than for some other crimes.
The gangs of armed robbers come from Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. After a few operations, the gang members split the money and either hide in their native places or flee to Nepal. “Some even stay in five-star hotels in Nepal and spend the money lavishly. This is a trend that has been observed among the central-east Indian gangs,” said a senior police officer from the crime branch.
It is standard investigation procedure when a robbery occurs to track the suspect’s phone and vehicle. The criminals know this and are cautious about using phones and vehicles.“They usually arrive by train as normal passengers.
“If they want to use a vehicle for a robbery, they just steal it or hire it. SIM cards are also purchased from local shops using fake identification cards, making it difficult for police to track devices,” said the officer.
Another way to detect a case is to track down the receivers of stolen bounty. The police keep surveillance on known receivers of stolen goods and arrest the robbers when they come to dispose of the property. This tactic works very well with native gangs, but not for outsider gangs.
“Sometimes, even their receivers are constantly on the move. The deals are fixed even before the robbery and the disposal is quick and leaves no trace,” said another detective.
Neighbour cops ‘can’t be trusted’
When Telangana state police pursue criminals in their own home territories of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand or other parts of central-east India, the going is much tougher as even the local police can collude with criminals there.
Many of these areas are lawless as the local police have no power in areas under their jurisdiction.
“This is very evident when we go there. The lack of cooperation from the cops there hampers our operations,” said a detective who had earlier chased a gang into Jhar-khand. In fact, sometimes, taking help from the local police in central India might sabotage the entire operation with the information being leaked to the offenders from the police department itself.
“We are even hesitant to inform the local police about our arrival because lower ranking cops might even tip off the criminals,” said a senior police officer.
Telangana police has busted gangs without taking help from the local police in central and east India. But when the gangs are heavily armed, it is necessity to enlist the help of the local police.
