Hyderabad: Walking style gets chain gang caught

Hyderabad: A peculiar style of walking of one of the suspects led the Cyberabad police to nab a five-member gang involved in nine chain snatching offences. The gang has been committing offences for the last two months, targeting women in residential areas and busy commercial spaces.

Around 86 gm of gold, three bikes and two phones, worth altogether Rs 4 lakh, were recovered. More property is yet to be recovered from one Yousuf of Mothinagar, who is currently absconding.

The Cyberabad police recorded 10 cases of theft, mostly of gold chains and mobile phones, two from Madhapur, six from KPHB Colony, and one each from Bachupally and Narsingi. The details of the theft were observed from the footage of hundreds of CCTV cameras analysed by the KPHB Colony and Special Operations Team (Madhapur zone). They found that in all the cases, there were two men travelling on a bike. While the pillion rider was the same, the drivers were different. “In a video captured at KPHB Colony seconds before an offence took place, a youngster was seen walking towards the victim. The video did not capture the offence, but in other videos, the same suspect was noticed as a pillion rider.”  

When the video of the suspect was shown to locals in the areas where the snatching offences took place, he was identified as Dusmukku Dasthagiri, 19, a resident of Borabanda and the identification was made because of his unusual style of walking, said a police official involved in the investigation.

Following this clue, the teams caught Dasthagiri, his aides B. Sairam, 19, M. Shiva Kumar, 19, and a juvenile who were all in this gang to make easy money. One Mahaboob Pasha, a resident of Borabanda, who would purchase the stolen property was also arrested, said the police.

Dasthagiri had been arrested in 11 cases of bike thefts in Hyderabad and Cyberabad limits.