A month on,Kanpur theft case solved

Though Razzak and his three accomplices — Bhola,Mithun and Babloo — are still absconding,police believe that with the arrest of Sattar Shekih,Mohammad Riyaz,Isarial,Najrul,Baddruddin — all from Jharkhand — and Taimur and Shaqib from Kanpur,they will be able to trace the stolen jewellery.

Interestingly,the group of seven had returned to Kanpur on Tuesday and were going to execute another major theft at a jewellery showroom when they were arrested from Benajhabar area. The police recovered two country-made pistols,five live cartridges,an oxygen gas cylinder,a few pipes apart from Rs 1 lakh worth jewellery and another Rs 1 lakh in cash from their possession.

Mohit Gupta,ASP Kanpur (West),said that after they identified some of the thieves from the grainy CCTV footage of the showroom,they came to know that the gang had executed several such burglaries in Mumbai,Ludhiana,Jalandhar and Lucknow. “The Maharashtra Police had given us some important information related to the thieves,and working on that line we were successful in arresting the seven persons,” said Gupta.

The probe in the case had led the police to several states including Bihar,Jharkhand and Orissa.

The Modus Operandi

* Two days before stealing jewellery from the Kanpur showroom,the nine members of the gang arrive in the city

* They stay at Hotel Laxmi in Chamanganj area and carry out surveillance of the jewellery showroom in the posh PPN Market for two days

* Here they get help from Shaqib,a resident of Chamanganj who is also a relative of Isarial

* On April 19,the group reaches the place late in night. Four of them — Sattar,Bhola,Mithun and Babloo — enter the showroom after breaking open the gate on the second floor of the building. The rest five take different positions in the vicinity of the showroom so that they could alert their gang members in case police reach the area

* “Bhola and Babloo broke open the main safe of the showroom with the help of oxygen gas cutter,and we decamped with whatever jewellery we could collect in 10 minutes,” said Sattar Shekih,who was produced before the media by the police

* They decamp with gold weighing 6.5 kg,diamond sets,a laptop and two mobile phones. They reach Kanpur Central Railway Station and board a train to Bhagalpur

* “Razzak is the mastermind of all the thefts carried out by us. Each time we steal jewellery,we go to his Bhagalpur residence for getting the share of the booty,” said Sattar

Loose ends in probe

* Police have not yet recovered the stolen jewellery from them. Only a few gold ornaments and diamond rings worth Rs 1 lakh have been recovered

* Those who helped the gang in Kanpur have not been identified

Owner says

“Though we are satisfied with the efforts of the police,we are hoping that more stolen products are recovered at the earliest” Dilip Agarwal,owner of the jewellery showroom