Two members of the notorious Haryana gang, Preethpal Takran and Rajeev Soni, were arrested here on Sunday. Gold ornaments weighing 3 kg worth ₹90 lakh were recovered from from them.
The gang committed 16 offences in the last six months in A.P., including eight in Vijayawada city. Two of the six members including kingpin Sathpal Singh were at large and one was in judicial custody.
Sathpal, a dismissed jawan, formed the gang with dacoits from Delhi and Haryana and was giving the police in many States sleepless nights.
Sathpal gang was wanted also in Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and other States in about 30 cases. He was a dossier criminal in Haryana, said Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) T.K. Rana, at a press conference.
“The gang is notorious and flees with lightening speed on flights. They open fire if anybody comes in their way. They killed a police officer in Tamil Nadu and fired at the escort police in Delhi,” Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang told The Hindu.
In Andhra Pradesh, the hardcore gang committed dacoities in Nellore, Guntur, Ananthapur, Kurnool, Krishna districts, he said.
Modus operandi
Explaining the modus operandi, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ghajarao Bhupal said the gang would conduct ‘recce’ and strike on locked houses and flats, where there were no surveillance cameras.
The robbers always handed over the booty to Sathpal Singh who escaped by air. They would change the cars and mobile phones after the offence and their family members were leading a posh life, said DCP (crimes) Sk. Shireen Begum.
“As many as 20 teams collected CCTV footage from airports, national highways, railway and bus stations in different States for the last six months and rounded up the accused with the coordination of police officers of Haryana and Rajasthan,” she said and appreciated the efforts of ACPs Varma and Sunder Raju, who headed the teams.
Efforts were on to nab the rest, the JCP said.