Gang that raped 19 held

Tirupati: Members of a notorious gang of rapists and thieves wanted in 19 registered cases across Chittoor district, and for several other unreported crimes, were caught by the Chittoor police on Sunday.

According to Chittoor additional SP Annapoorna Reddy, Velayan alias Manigandan, 27, Murugan alias Kasi, 29, Raghavan alias Venkatesh, 30, Govindasamy alias Krishna, and Bommi from Tamil Nadu  and Ramireddy, Sake Rajender, Prathap and Vijay Kumar from Chittoor were nabbed by a special team constituted to investigate the spurt in crime in remote areas. Chittoor police constituted a team of 150 men to nab the gang that was wanted for rapes and robberies in the remote areas of the district.

The modus operandi of the nine-member gang was to go after cuoples in secluded spots, rob them of their belongings, rape the girls and record the ghastly act. They threatened to make the recording public if the victims made a complaint.

There were 19 such incidents reported to the police across the district, but the gang members have reportedly confessed their involvement in an unimaginable 50 such cases. A majority of the crimes thus went unreported.

The additional SP said that the gang has also confessed to committing four murders, including the murer of Palamaner police constable and home guard. They had also killed two of their accomplices after differences cropped up.