23.2 lakh booty seized four held

Visakhapatnam: The city crime police personnel arrested four members of a notorious attention-diversion gang and recovered Rs 23.2 lakh worth stolen property from their possession on Friday. The police also arrested a gold merchant from Jajpur (Odisha) for purchasing stolen gold from the gang members.

The arrested persons include Ganta Srinu (29), a resident of Vizag, S Satyanarayana (24), Ganta China (27), both natives of Narsipatnam in the rural district and Micheal Ramu (26), a native of Jeypore and 30-year-old jewellery businessman Ashok Kumar Mahapatro, who owns a jewellery shop in Jajpur.

Commissioner of Police T Yoganand told reporters that the gang had committed 18 attention diversion offences, including 16 in the city in the past few months, targeting bank customers, travelling in share autos and city buses. Explaining the modus of operandi,

Inspector of CCS Raghuveer Vishnu said that the members of the gang carried specially made two-inch sharp blade with them and used it to cut the bags of passengers and steal the valuables (gold, silver and cash). By using the same blade, the gang used to open the trunk/boot of cars and bikes to loot the valuables.

After a series of offences, CCS team led by Raghuveer Vishnu got some concrete clues about the gang and nabbed them red-handed when they were in possession of tool to open dickey of a two-wheeler. The police recovered 660 gms of gold, two kgs of silver and Rs 5.25 lakh cash from them and investigation is on to recover the remaining stolen property, the Commissioner said.