Hyderabad: Burglars cash in on Sankranti festival

Hyderabad: It’s the same story every year. Home owners move out to celebrate Sankranti and the burglars move in and loot valuables.  

Repeated warnings from cops not to store their valuables at home fell on deaf ears. Increased patrolling and additional measures taken by police weren’t a deterrent. 

Fourteen residences, including the house of a home guard who was on night duty at Meerpet, were targeted and gold and cash in large quantities were taken away. Cases of theft were reported at Hayathnagar, Meerpet, Kushaiguda and Rajendranagar police stations with around Rs 5 lakh cash stolen and over 80 tolas of gold missing. In all the houses, offenders gained entry to the house by breaking open the main door locks and later breaking the almirah locks to access the valuables.

“The number of cases may go up as people are still returning from vacation,” an official from Rachakonda police Commissionerate said.

At least a month ago, cops in the city had started preparing for Sankranti vacation to ensure there were no thefts in the city. Plans were drawn up, special teams formed for day and night patrols and  sleuths from the Special Operations Team were also roped in. Awareness programs on precautions to be taken to avoid thefts, to alert cops before leaving home were taken up, but  none of them worked. 

On Sunday night at Bandlaguda in Rajend-ranagar, six houses were targeted, out of which four were swept clean of valuables and around 40 tolas of gold was stolen.

To celebrate Sankranti, residents of two houses went for a newly released movie, while others were on vacation. In Meerpet, besides the home guard who was on night duty, the house of an irrigation department emplo-yee was targeted and 26 tolas of gold and one lakh rupees was stolen. 

In Kushaiguda, a house where residents were sleeping, was also broken into. In Hayathnagar, five houses were targeted. Three  attempts were successful, while two failed.