Three men who looted 30 shops held

CHENNAI: Police have arrested a three-member gang which broke into more than 30 shops across the city over the last two months and made off with valuable electronic items after loading them into a truck. Passersby who spotted them would assume they were workers involved in unloading goods, said a police officer. The police recovered 10kg of silver, 820 watches, six LED televisions and two cars from them.


The gang members were identified as

Sarfraz

Nawaz, 36, of Kolathur, M Mohammad Shereen, 26, of

Adyar

, and K Raja, 33, of Korattur. The men targeted shops in

Royapettah

, Mylapore, Kotturpuram, Anna Nagar and Selaiyur.

The booty from the thefts was sent to Sarfraz’s house in Korattur, said a police officer. Sarfraz set up a shop at

Arakkonam

where he sold the stolen goods at a subsidised rate without bills and made a lucrative profit, the officer added.

Investigating officers who scrutinised CCTV footage found that the same gang was involved in all the cases. Police identified Sarfaz from the footage as a previous offender who was involved in criminal activities for more than 20 years and had been detained under the Goondas Act eight times.

Police also found an SUV and a truck parked at all the crime scenes. A police team comprising sub inspectors Parthasarathy and Agilan as well as head constables Saravana Kumar, Sugu, Sundar and Saravanan subsequently maintained a close vigil on the movement of vehicles late at night. When they noticed the same vehicles entering Royapettah on Sunday night for another operation, the gang was rounded up.

“Whenever Sarfraz was caught by the police, he inflicted injuries all over his body in a bid to prevent his arrest. He had at least 50 injuries on his body. Even in custody, it was difficult for the police to safeguard him as he always managed to procure a weapon,” said a police officer, adding that Sarfraz had booked a new van for his next operation in the city before the gang was nabbed.

Investigations revealed that the gang had also struck at a store in Telangana last month, escaping with 43 sovereigns of gold jewellery, four kg of silver items and ?50,000. The three men have been sent

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