Vastrapur cops on Monday evening played spoil-sport to an inter-state gang’s nefarious game of sling-shot attacks on cars when they busted their game near Himalaya mall and rounded up two members too. Two members managed to escape. The gang, involved in more than 50 thefts from the city, main weapon was a sling shot with which they decamped with booty from parked cars.
While Shravan Naidu, 33, a native of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu and Kalidas Naidu, 31, a native of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu are in cops’ custody, Narendra Naidu and another 16-year-old, both brothers-in-law of Kalidas, managed to evade arrest.
Vastrapur police beefed up its vigil in civvies after three cars parked in and around Gurukul area were attacked within a span of 3 days. Apart from Vastrapur area, sporadic incidents of similar nature were also reported from other parts of city.
On Monday evening, Naimkhan Pathan, ASI, Vastrapur, and two of his colleagues kept a vigil near Sales India showroom near Himalaya mall. Cops spotted four men doing a recce of cars parked there and started pursuing them.
“We ran after them and two changed course and managed to escape. We kept running after the other two on foot till we caught up with them after a brief chase,” said Pathan.
Besides a ladies purse, cops found a sling shot and 4 steel tablets, which are often used for sealing electricity meters, in their possession. Intensive quizzing revealed a unique modus operandi the gang had employed. Instead of putting themselves in trouble by breaking window with their hands, they fired metal shots on the glass pane from their sling, said MK Rana, police inspector of Vastrapur.
Their fool-proof plan included checking the car first by two members, acting as curious onlookers, and then signaling the other two standing at a distance to fire from the sling. This covert operation also makes them invisible in case of alert. After the glass pane is shattered, the ‘2 curious onlookers’ begins their job of lifting bag or purse from the car before vanishing the scene. The gang planned to amass enough booty from the city, before changing base.
“Kalidas claims to have committed 50 such thefts from the city within last one year. He had called the other three accomplices from his native 10 days ago and arranged for their accommodation in Amraiwadi too. They are mainly pick-pockets, who have done similar crimes in New Delhi and Chennai in the past too,” Pathan added.
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