Interstate gang nabbed; fraudsters used to visit homes of gullible women when their menfolk were away, and flee with ornaments given for polishing.
Byatarayanapura police have arrested four men who, posing as gold jewellery polishers, have been stealing ornaments from houses at different part of the city and sold the valuables to jewellers with the help of small time goldsmiths.
Puttu Kumar, 32, Sanjay Kumar, 26, Romi Kumar, 25 and Bipin Kumar, 24, natives of Bagalapur in Bihar, adopted a unique modus operandi-they would visit houses between 11 am and 3 pm, when men are mostly away at work, and tell women that they polish silver and gold jewellery free of cost. They would flee with the jewellery once it is handed over to them for polishing.
On May 28, 2011, the gang visited Noor Azira's house in Byatarayanapura and fled with 26 g of gold jewellery. Azira was alone at home when the miscreants came. They told her that they would polish silver and gold ornaments free of cost. First she gave them silver articles which they polished neatly. When she brought gold jewellery for polishing, they asked her to bring a cooker. They put the gold ornaments in the cooker and added some powder. After a while, they told her to keep the cooker on stove and boil the jewellery. When she opened the cooker after it cooled, as she was told, the ornaments were missing," said an investigating officer.
Police arrested the four from Bihar with the help of the local police there. "We got a clue that the gang is in Bihar and a team went and arrested them from there. One miscreant named Ranjith Kumar is still at large," police said.
The gang, led by Puttu Kumar, started operations in Bihar in 2007. Later they went to Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai before coming to Bangalore. In Karnataka, they committed crimes in Mysore and Mandya, too.
"The gang would split into a couple of teams and visit houses between 11 am to 3 pm as men are mostly away at work during this time. If someone asks them why they polish gold for free, they would tell them that they are from jewellery designing companies who want to promote their products," police said.
They gang also used to commit thefts once they realise there is nobody at home. On February 18, 2011, they fled with 60 grams of gold from a house in New Guddadahalli which was open.
After stealing ornaments from different parts of the city, they used to sell them at jewellery shops in Tumkur. The police solved around 23 jewellery stealing cases in the city and recovered 1.5 kg gold ornaments.
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