Gang of 5 held for housebreaking in Andheri

MUMBAI: Andheri police have arrested a gang of five men who allegedly broke into the 30 houses last week. The gang targeted the places which were mostly occupied by bachelors working late at night. According to police sources a gang of five men based in Jogeshwari area targeted many bachelor pads at Marol, MIDC and Saki Naka area of suburban Andheri, and broke into the houses of working individuals, decamping with electronics like laptops, hard disks, pen drives and iPods from the houses. A source close to the investigation added, "Over the last week, we received theft complaints from 25 individuals, and after a close investigation, found out that most of the cases had similar modus operandi." Acting on the information provided by the complainants, the police checked the CCTV footage to identify the accused and found the same five persons loitering around the targeted place for hours before going in. A police team began searching for them with a CCTV grab of the accused and circulated the same within their circuits of informers. On Tuesday the police received a tipoff of the accused doing a recce in an area and apprehended them on the spot. The police have booked the five accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to trespassing (section 453), housebreaking (section 457), theft in dwelling house (section 380) and common intention (section 34). The police have seized electronics and cash worth Rs 9.78 lakh from the accused's place in Jogeshwari and have returned the same to their rightful owners.