Eight members of an inter-State gang which operated in seven States was nabbed by the GRP Bhopal and valuables worth `50 lakh have been recovered from their possession, said Superintendent of Police (Railway) Bhopal Awdesh Goswami while speaking with the media persons on Friday.
Elaborating on the gang’s modus operandi Goswami said that gang members worked in a team which was aimed to engage the coach attendant and ticket checker and target the passengers with valuables and if the passenger wakes up they would gather and rescue the gang member by claiming that the luggage was taken by mistake.
Initially the team sent in search of the gang had nabbed five persons however nothing concrete was obtained and later by scanning the footages of the cameras 16 persons were identified and the team was successful in nabbing eight people out of the 16 persons involved in the crime. The gang operated in Bihar, M.P, Hyderabad, West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, he added.
The crimes of the gang surfaced after two big thefts of `35 lakh and `2.5 lakh were reported by Bhusawal and Itarsi GRP.
The key accused Shyam Potdhar who was the mastermind of the gang is still at largeand a cash reward of `10000 has been declared for the tip off on the whereabouts of the absconding accused. The main accused has also contested the State Assembly elections.
In the investigation the gang has confessed 12 thefts in Bhopal division and till the date they have committed 125 thefts across seven
States.
The gang used to stay on the spot for a very short period of time and left the luggage soon after removing the cash and valuables in buses to avoid the suspicion.