Two members of a Bawariya gang who were accused in four chain snatching incidents in the district were arrested by Nehru Colony police on Thursday.
Police have succeeded in recovering four gold chains and the motorbike which was used to commit the crimes. One of the accused has a criminal record in Dehradun, Haridwar and Kankhal police stations, including two cases in Nehru Colony police station.
The accused has been identified as Gulshan (25) and Phool Singh (28), both from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh.
Dalanwala Circle Officer (CO) Jaya Baloni said, “Two cases were reported in Nehru Colony, one in Patelnagar police station and one in Doiwala.
Based on CCTV footage from the crime scene and human intelligence, we found that the Bawariya gang is active here.
We verified the names of accused arrested in the past 10 years and then arrested two accused from near Shamli- Saharanpur Highway and have recovered all four chains which roughly amount to Rs two lakh.” She further added, “They were planning to sell the chains together after snatching two or three more chains.
Now that we have started to question the jewellers to whom thieves sell stolen jewellery and make them one of the accused also, jewellers have become alert.
Now they ask about the details of purchase and the reason for selling. So, now the thieves can only sell to goldsmiths found in narrow streets.”
About the modus operandi she said, “They used to start their journey in the morning from Shamli, then target old women in streets or localities and then by the evening they used to go back.
Gulshan used to keep the motorbike running, while Phool Singh used to go and snatch the chains. We will continue to interrogate them; we want to verify the probability of them being involved in some other cases.”
About how they identified the accused, Nehru Colony police station in-charge DS Negi said, “We ascertained from the statements of the victims and the CCTV footage that one of the accused was limping and the motorbike was also identified.”