Kanjar gang held in TS for 1st time

After a month gap, the city police arrested four members of the notorious Kanjar gang from Dewas in Madhya Pradesh for their involvement in a robbery in Hayathnagar. The gang had fled with 647 cartons of cigarettes worth `4 crore on August 19. Sleuths recovered the lorries used by the gang to commit the crime.

The arrested persons were identified as Rajaram Malvi, 52, driver Sunil Chavda, K. Raja Babu alias Satish, 22, and Hakam Singh, 45, all residents of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh.

On August 19, the truck, bearing the number KA 2 AD 1220, was transporting cigarettes from Musheerabad to Tirupati. When the vehicle with the Gold Flake and Navi Cut cigarette brands reached Pedda Amberpet, around 30 persons arrived in two SUVs and thrashed the driver before decamped with the goods. “The driver, Akhilesh Yadav, 27, a native of Bihar, has been working with Coastal Road Lines for the past six months. When he reached Outer Ring Road, two TATA Sumos and a lorry intercepted his vehicle. They assaulted him, tied him and drove away the truck” said J. Narender Goud, police inspector, Hayathnagar,.

Based on a tip-off about a Madhya Pradesh-registrated vehicle in the city, the police zeroed in on the Kanjar gang of Dewas. A special police team was dispatched to Madhya Pradesh. On September 10, the police arrested the gang members and recorded their statements, said the police. This is for the first time, that the Kanjar gang is caught by the Racha-konda police. The inter-state gang, which operates with country-made firearms, has committed crime in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“Their usual modus operandi is generally with country-made firearms. They used ropes and rods during the Outer Ring Road cigarette heist,” said M.Venkateshwar Rao, deputy commissioner of police, LB Nagar.

Hidden vehicles, which were used to commit the crime, were seized from parking yards at Indore.

The police arrested the gang members after keeping a close tab on their activities in the city for a month.

“The arrests were made based on the clues, gathered through the CCTV footages from Maharashtra, Anantapur and Outer Ring Road,” said Ma-hesh Bhagwat, Rachakonda police commissioner.

“The gang is notorious in the country and used to target victims on highways in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Due to their meticulous approach, they used to give a slip to the police,” added the deputy commissioner . After producing the accused before a local magistrate, they were brought to Hyderabad on a transit remand.