Two arrested for snatching cash bags

HYDERABAD: Karkhana police on Monday arrested two men who specialized in stealing money from people coming out of banks.
The accused were identified as Mithun Gwala and his brother Manoj Gwala from Jalpaiguri of West Bengal. They had committed over 100 offences in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Bihar and Delhi They formed a gang after teaming up with fellow villagers Jatin Shah and Amit Chand Singh.
On Monday, Karkhana police apprehended the duo from a lodge near the Secunderabad railway station. On interrogation, they confessed to having snatched five cash bags at Karkhana, Marredpally and Jaipur. The accused generally travel to cities via trains and transport their bikes with them. They then visit any corporate bank where one person goes inside to identify a potential target. The associates wait outside and snatch the cash bag from the target when he/she comes out, DCP, North Zone, R Jayalakshmi said.
They offenders travel as a team of four members from one place to another in trains with their Bajaj Pulsar bikes. They stay in moderate lodges near railway stations by posing as cloth merchants. Then the gang members visit corporate banks in the area on their bikes. While one of the gang members enter the bank and identifies a target, his associates waiting outside on the bike, follow the target and steal the cash bag, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), North Zone, R Jayalakshmi said.
After committing the offence, they park the vehicle at the railway station parking lot with a duplicate key and some cash under the seat of the vehicle as a precautionary measure. "In case any of the team members are apprehended by police, remaining gang members will pick up the vehicle from the parking lot and leave the city," the DCP said.
The offenders obtain SIM cards with fake documents and after committing an offence, they used to discard both the phone and the SIM card.
As per information provided by the duo, there are about 150 offenders hailing from Janjupara in Jalpaiguri district committing such offences. Police seized Rs 73,000 cash, three phones, several SIM cards and fake IDs from the culprits. Their associates Jatin Shah and Amit Chand Singh were still on the run.