5 involved in 6 offences nabbed, gold, cash seized

The Rachakonda Special Operations Team apprehended five persons who were allegedly involved in six offences, and recovered about 160 gm gold, one kg silver articles, a twowheeler and two phones, all worth `5.8 lakh from them on Friday.

According to Rachakonda police, five burglaries had taken place at Abdullapurmet in April, July, October and November and another burglary at Adibatla where the method adopted by the thieves were found to be similar.

The accused Santosh and P. Suraj, both 21, were habitual offenders who were arrested in mobile and automobile theft cases.

In order to make money easily, the duo took to burgling houses. They used to give the stolen property to two persons identified as Latchi Ram and John for disposal, the police said. Ram and John were also accused of stealing idols from a temple at Gundepudi in Mahbubabad district.

Late on Wednesday night, Suraj and Santosh were caught at Abdullapurmet and the police recovered 75 gm gold, 300 gm silver and two phones which were given to them by Latchi Ram and John, the Rachakonda police said. They confessed to the burglaries.

In another instance, one Shaik Yousuf Basha, 27, a resident of LB Nagar. a native of Amaravati in Guntur of Andhra Pradesh, was apprehended by the Rachakonda SOT.

“Yousuf, a notorious burglar was arrested four times since 2012. After burgling two houses at Adibatla in 2017, he went absconding. Two non-bailable warrants were issued against him. He operated alone and used a small iron rod to break the locks and only stole gold and silver. He is wanted in two cases,” said Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat.

The team recovered 85 gm gold and 700 gm silver from Yousuf and produced him before a court on Friday, he said.

■ THE ACCUSED were habitual offenders who were arrested in mobile and automobile theft cases.