Hyderabad, Oct 12 (IANS) The police in Hyderabad said on Monday that they have busted a Nepalese dacoity gang, which used to persuade their compatriots working as domestic helps to drug the residents before the robbery.
Three persons have been arrested in connection with the case, including the gang leader. A search is on for six other absconding gang members.
Cyberabad Police achieved the breakthrough during the investigations into a dacoity committed by the gang last week under the Raidurgam police station area.
The accused had looted valuables from a house after the maid servant, also a member of the gang, served food and tea laced with sedatives to the family members on the night of October 5.
The arrested include gang leader Netra Bahadur Shahi who, according to police, was identifying and befriending Nepalese working as housemaids or servants in cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai and convince them to help them commit the robberies by mixing sleeping pills in their owners’ food. Once they were on board, he used to call his gang members from different places like Mumbai, Delhi, Udaipur, Surat to commit the offences.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar told reporters that Rs 5.2 lakh cash, gold ornaments weighing about 300 grams and worth Rs 20 lakh, were recovered from the gang, which was also found involved in another crime that occurred in the city earlier.
Giving details of the latest incident, the police chief said Janki, who was working as cook in the house of Madhusudhan Reddy, served food and tea laced with sedatives to the family members and other workers in the house. After this she and Manoj Bahadur Shahi, working as car driver in the same house, informed Netra Shahi, who sent two others inside the house and later himself entered the house.
They beat and blindfolded Sailaja Reddy, who had not lost her complete consciousness as she had taken only a few sips of tea, and threatened to kill her and her infant grandson Ayansh, if she raised an alarm. They decamped with gold jewelry, cash, and other valuables.
Since all the family members and drivers were unconscious, Sailaja Reddy remained inside the house the whole night in a panic. The next morning, she freed herself with the help of a pair of scissors, called out the neighbouring plot’s watchman who alerted her relatives and they shifted her husband, son, daughter-in-law, grandson and another driver to hospital for treatment.
Following the incident, police had registered a case of dacoity and attempt to murder and took up investigations.
Telangana Police received cooperation from their counterparts from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in solving the case.
Sajjanar said the same gang was involved in a previous case of Narsingi police station.
Besides Netra, police also arrested Prakash Shahi and Sita Lawar. Six other gang members including Janki and Manoj Bahadur Shahi are absconding.
The Police Commissioner appealed to people to do a proper background check of a person before employing him or her as domestic help and take all precautions.
–IANS
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