Bangladeshi immigrants on cops’ radar for robberies
LUCKNOW: For the last three months, the city police are tracking a gang of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants suspected to be behind multiple house robberies in Lucknow and other districts as well as states.
Sources said some of the gang’s facilitators in Lucknow and Kanpur are on their continuous radar, but they are unable to arrest them in the absence of proper evidences.
A senior police official admitted that a team led by a superintendent of police (SP), Anurag Vats has been probing four house robberies reported in Gomti Nagar and PGI areas between May 8 and July 13. He said the team also managed to find out the gang’s details and movement in Lucknow, Kanpur, and other parts of the state as well as the country but failed to nail them.
The official said the police team has even identified three persons in Lucknow including two lawyers and a suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrant who were in regular touch with the gang members.
He said the gang often visits India for 2-3 months and returns after committing multiple robberies in different parts of the country. He said it is very difficult to track them as they assume different identities every time and change mobile numbers. Moreover, the gang has its pre-paid lawyers in Lucknow to provide them legal aid , he added.
MODUS OPERANDI
The official said Bangladeshi immigrants move in group of 10-15 across the country where they have their facilitators. “Lucknow and Kanpur is among their hot spots where they have multiple facilitators like advocates, slum dwellers, hotel owners and e-rickshaw pullers,” he said.
The official said the gang members’ mobile locations and movement suggested that they were in touch with some slum dwellers, also suspected to be Bangladeshi immigrants. He said these slum dwellers worked as domestic helps, e-rickshaw pullers, and rag pickers so they easily manage to collect information about families staying in different colonies.
The gang zero-in on their target houses after analysing the families’ financial background and possibility of finding valuables, he added. The gang travel on e-rickshaws during night hours to dodge the police . Their favourite targets are colonies close to Shaheed Path stretch from Gomti Nagar to Ashiana via PGI.