Eluru Police miss chance to nab ‘Chaddy Gang’ robbers

ELURU: City police here lost a golden opportunity to nab six robbers, suspected to be of the notorious ‘Chaddy Gang’, because of the negligence on the part of the sentry, who received an alert from the State’s Emergency Call Centre on Thursday night. He did not pass on the information to his higher officials immediately. As a result, the III Town police reached several hours after the robbers fled the house where they prowled for some time before fleeing after the residents raised a hue and cry.

According to sources, the robbers entered the house belonging to an advocate, Devarapalli Satyanarayana at Shanti Nagar after midnight. His tenant on the ground floor, Sarella Ramakrishna, a fish trader, returned home very late and was about to go to bed when he heard footsteps outside.

He rushed to the monitor attached to a CCTV camera and found six members moving a bike against his door in an obvious intention to block his exit. Ramakrishna without losing time called up 100 and alerted the police about the intruders.

The emergency call centre immediately conveyed the information to the III Town Police. But the duty sentry, who received the call, failed to alert his higher-ups immediately. He took one hour before conveying the message to his bosses, buying the gang time to flee.

Consequently, the police lost a good chance to nab the robbers who might be members of the ‘Chaddy’ gang that is spreading terror in the State.

Ramakrishna after alerting the emergency call centre called up the house owner and his friends on his mobile and switched on the lights in the compound. Realising that they were being watched, the robbers jumped the wall and fled. If only the III Town police were alerted in time about the robbery attempt, there would have been a good chance of the intruders being nabbed.  

Eluru DSP K Eswara Rao, Central Crime Station (CCS) DSP Satyanarayana, III Town CI Srinivasa Rao, SI A Pydibabu reached the house on Friday morning. The police officials inquired with Ramakrishna about the intruders.  Later, they watched the CCTV footage and observed that the assailants wore knickers and vests and were armed with knives and iron rods.

The CCTV footage showed that the intruders pushed a parked bike against the door of the house occupied by the tenant, Ramakrishna. They tied the bike to the door latch with a plastic rope.
They then moved to the rear side of the house with clear intention to break in before beating a hasty retreat after Ramakrishna switched on the lights.

DSP Eswara Rao told media that the intruders might be members of the Sholapur gang from Maharashtra, who are also known to be merciless.