The six-member biker gang from Ramjinagar in Tamil Nadu robbed people by diverting their attention. They finally drove into the police net after the public’s attention was drawn to the four-digit registration number of one of their vehicles.
With their arrest, the south division police said they have solved 15 attention diversion cases in Jayanagar, Subramanyapura, JP Nagar and Tilak Nagar.
Those arrested are Rajesh, 27, Subramani, 20, Venkatesh, 20, Sharavana, 24 ,Uttaman, 40, and Naresh, 24. The police also recovered Rs3 lakh cash and three motorcycles from them.The gang left a clue on January 10 when they targeted Rajgopalan, a city-based businessman, as he was going to a bank in Doddakallasandra to deposit Rs2.5 lakh cash.
As Rajgopalan was alighting from his car, they told him that he had dropped some currency notes. When he bent down to pick up the notes, they took his cash bag and fled. However, Rajgopalan raised an alarm and alert passers-by were partly succesful in noting the four-digit registration number of a vehicle being driven by one of the gangsters.
Rajgopalan filed a complaint with Subramanyapura police, who started collecting addresses of motorcycles with four-digit number from regional transport offices (RTOs) across the city.
The data was voluminous and the police formed a team to analyse it and question each vehicle owner. But even after verifying thousands of vehicles, police could not get any leads.
Finally, they approached the Hosur RTO with the four-digit number.
The team zeroed in on owners of a few two-wheelers and found that the details given during the registration of the vehicle were cooked up. With the help of local police, they nabbed two gangsters in Hosur. When questioned, the duo confessed and said they belonged to Ramjinagar gang.
Subramanyapura police inspector Balegowda said the gang lived in a rented house in Hosur and used to drive to Bangalore on motorcycles in search of prey. They usually operated in pairs.
Modus operandi
They had many tricks up their sleeve to divert the attention of victims. Sometimes, they would spit a chewed biscuit on the target without the lattter’s knowledge and drew the victim’s attention to the dirt on the shirt. While one gangster helped in removing the dirt, the other gangster would escape with his cash bag.
Sometime, as in the case of Rajagopalan, they dropped notes and robbed the victims as they tried to pick up the notes. They targeted women by throwing chemicals, which caused skin irritation. While the women would be busy trying to dust off the powder, the gang made good with their belongings. Later, the gangsters would meet at a common place and drive to Hosur.
Once they reached their house, they would call up their leader and brief him about their day’s activities. A share of the loot would be sent to the leader as protection money, which would be used for bail expenses and advocates’ fee.
If the gangsters did not call in every evening, it was a sign that they had been caught. The leader would then alert advocates to go through the crime news published in newspapers to learn about the whereabouts of the arrested gangsters and initiate steps to bail them out.
“With their arrest, we’ve managed to solve 15 attention-diversion cases in Jayanagar, Subramanyapura, JP Nagar and Tilaknagar. So far, we’ve recovered Rs3 lakh and three motorcycles from them,” Balegowda said.
Although the amount involved in these cases ran into lakhs of rupees, it was difficult to recover the amount, as the gang had sent the money to their family in Ramjinagar and the money was used to build houses and buy jewellery, Balegowda said.
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