Ludhiana: 2 gangs of snatchers busted, 5 arrested

LUDHIANA: The police on Tuesday claimed to have busted two gangs of snatchers, with the arrest of five.
In the first case, Division 3 police arrested a band of three snatchers. As many as 17 cellphones and nine stolen two-wheelers were recovered from them. The police claimed to have solved at least 35 cases of snatching and vehicle theft with the arrest of Gagan Kumar of Dhandra Road, Rohit Kumar of Mohar Singh Nagar and Ashu Kumar of New Basant Vihar.
Joint commissioner of police (city) Deepak Pareek said, “They were arrested from Kirpal Nagar puli of Division 3 area on a tip-off. All three are drug addicts and started executing crimes to meet their drug needs.”
About their modus operandi, he said, “The accused would first steal motorcycles and scooters and then use these to commit snatchings. They stole vehicles with duplicate keys. They have sold some stolen vehicles to scrap dealers after dismantling them.”
ADCP-1 Pragya Jain said, “Factory workers were their main targets. The gang would snatch their cellphones when factory workers were on the way home after work. They would sell the snatched cellphones at cheap prices and buy drugs with the money.”
Gagan has a snatching case against him at Model Town police station. The criminal records of Ashu and Rohit were being checked, she added.
In another case, Division 8 police arrested Surjit Singh of Civil City and Deepanshu of New Kundanpuri with 15 snatched cellphones and a stolen bike. On June 26, the accused had snatched a purse from Mukta Goyal, a resident of Deep Nagar, near Rajpura Chowk. Her purse contained Rs 8,500, a cellphone and documents.
Division 8 police station SHO sub-inspector Rajinderpal Singh said, “The accused are drug addicts. They started committing the crime four to five months ago to make easy money. They were more active in Clock Tower, Civil Lines and Kailash Chowk. Surjit has a criminal record as he has cases of snatching and theft against him.”