Burglars ‘stole’ the show in Telangana in 2015
Looted nearly Rs 90 cr worth of properties from households.
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2016-01-02 01:56 GMT
Hyderabad: Robbers looted a whopping Rs 90 crore worth of properties from households and business establishments in 2015 in Telangana.
Jewellery, cash, gadgets, and vehicles constituted most of the looted properties.
Robbers also killed 84 people, including senior citizens, during the thefts. The state, especially Hyderabad, also saw a surge in offences by interstate robbers and burglars in the last year as gangs from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and North Indian cities successfully pulled off heists.
The number of robbery in 2015 was much higher than the previous year. In 2014, there were 272 robberies while the number rose to 322 in 2015.
Most of the robbers operated on bikes and gave a slip to the cops as they zoomed off. Some of them were also armed with guns and knives. The maximum increase in robberies was reported in Hyderabad. While there was a 54 per cent hike in the Cyberabad Commissionerate, 38 per cent increase was recorded in Hyderabad Commissionerate compared to 2014. On September 29, Hyderabad witnessed a series of chain-snatchings as bike borne gangs targeted 11 women, including the kin of a former minister. Most of the snatchings occurred in posh areas of the city, and the perpetrators decamped with more than 350 gm of gold on that day.
In the second week of August, a gun-wielding gang of robbers opened fire to escape a police chase in Jubilee Hills. Though the cops busted the gang, a civilian was injured in the shooting.
In another incident, robbers escaped police firing at Vanasthalipuram in the first week of November.
The police, however, analysed the increase in robberies differently. “Unlike earlier, we are now booking serious chain-snatching cases as robbery cases. That’s why there is a hike recorded,” said DGP Mr Anurag Sharma.
However, not all chain-snatching cases are booked as robbery. The “seriousness” of the case is measured according to how badly the victim is injured.
House burglary and attention diversion cases also increased in Hyderabad in 2015. A 20 per cent increase in burglary cases was recorded in the city’s outskirts, while there was an eight per cent increase in attention diversion cases. The gangs used chilli powder and various other techniques to divert attention of people carrying money, and looted them in broad daylight.
‘Recovery’ a big hurdle for cops
Recovery of looted property remains one of the biggest challenges for the Telangana police. In 2015, cops managed to recover only half the properties in the registered cases.
Once disposed by the offenders, the recovery of stolen cash, vehicles and gadgets is difficult for the investigation officials. Stolen gadgets are even taken out of the country, while stolen vehicles get dismantled and sold in scrap markets across India.
In Hyderabad, where most of the property crimes were reported, the recovery rate is alarmingly low. The Hyderabad police could only recovered 23 per cent of property lost in house burglaries that took place in the day, while they recovered 32 per cent of stolen property in night burglary cases. In the attention diversion cases, the recovery was just 25 per cent in the Hyderabad Commissionerate in last year, as per recent data released by the state police.
Despite the installation of hundreds of surveillance cameras on roads across the capital, the police could not improve its recovery record in vehicle theft cases. While more than a thousand two-wheelers were stolen last year in city, Hyderabad cops could not recover more than 400.
The involvement of inter-state gangs in thefts make it difficult to recover vehicles as they are smuggled and sold by the time the police track down the offenders.
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