Burglary & extortion gang busted in Srinagar
STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Police on Tuesday busted a gang by arresting 10 persons involved in burglary, extortion and impersonating as security forces by donning combat uniforms and dummy weapons. As per details, on May 5, 2021, Police Station Parimpora received a written complaint from Mohd Maqbool Bhat, resident of Khawaja Bagh Maloora stating that during the intervening night some 6-8 unidentified gunmen, wearing combat dress, barged into his house and looted jewellery, cash & mobile phone.
Accordingly a case vide FIR No. 107/2021 under relevant sections of law was registered and investigation taken up. Moreover, on July 8, 2021 another complainant Mohd Rafiq Ahangar resident of Hokarsar Umerabad had lodged a similar complaint stating that last night some 4-6 unidentified gunmen wearing combat dresses entered his house and looted jewellery and cash. In this regard, case vide FIR No. 203/2021 under relevant sections of law was registered and investigation started. Accordingly, a special investigation team led by SHO Police Station Parimpora under the close supervision of SDPO West Jan Muzaffar and SP City West Perbeet Singh-JKPS was constituted to probe, trace and arrest accused involved in crime.
During the course of investigation, officers taking assistance of modern techniques and gathering leads from technical evidences, learnt about involvement of a gang of 10 accused persons identified as Tariq Ahmad Rather son of Ghulam Mohammad Rather, resident of Tangpora, at present Khan Mohalla Pati Shalabugh; Barkat Husain, son of Ghulam Rasool Hajam, resident of Mirgund Pattan; Mohammad Yousuf Sheikh, son of Abdul Rehman Sheikh, resident of Khan Saheb Budgam; Shahbaz Ahmad Laway, son of Mohammad Afzal Laway, resident of Sutlan Pora Pattan; Manzoor Ahmad Waza, son of Abdul Aziz Waza, resident of Matipora Pattan; Altaf Ahmad Guroo, son of Abdul Khaliq Guroo, resident of Maloora; Farooq Ahmad Lone, son of Ali Lone, resident of Khan Sahib Budgam; Mohammad Maqbool Laway, son of Ghulam Mohammad, resident of Sultan Pora Pattan, Jan Mohd Shiekh, son of Mohd Yousuf Shiekh, resident of Raithan Chak Budgam and Bilal Ahmad Kumar, son of Sona Ullah Kumar, resident of Sanoor Kalipora Magam, Budgam.
Preliminary investigation further revealed that burglars used to first conduct recce of suspected areas to find out the target houses, invariably the ones where marriage ceremony has been scheduled in near future. They had adopted a novel way, in which they don army camouflage and enter into houses with dummy pistols and assault rifles on pretext of cordon and search operation. When they got ingress into victim/target houses, they used to lock the family in a room, snatch their mobile phones and loot valuable gold items and cash.
Accordingly, the accused persons were arrested and during questioning they confessed their involvement in the crime. On their disclosure, police parties raided different locations and successfully recovered gold items worth Rs 22 lakh, cash amounting to Rs 3.30 lakh and a vehicle worth Rs 2 lakh purchased out of stolen property. Besides, camouflage uniforms, belts, boots and caps used to commit crime along with 5 dummy AK-47, 4 dummy pistols and iron rods were also recovered from their possession. Further investigation into the matter is under progress.