Ten gang members brought to Chennai from West Bengal

Chennai, Feb 1 (UNI) Ten of the 11-member burglary gang involved in grille offences' in the city and its suburbs, arrested in West Bengal on Sunday last, were today brought to the city for interrogation, amid tight security.

The gang, which included three women, were involved in various grille offences in the city and its suburbs for the last seven years.

One of the woman could not be brought to the city, as she was pregnant, police sources said.

Nine of the gang members were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and settled in Jadavpur district of West Bengal.

They were brought to the city today in a train after obtaining transit remand from a court in West Bengal. They were brought handcuffed.

All of them hailed from Madaripur district in Bangladesh.

Those arrested were gang leader K Swapan Saha (42), and his accomplices A Jahar Ali Khan (20), A Sahin Khan (22), A Luffar Sheikh (32), A Anwar Purkait (24), J Abu Mannan (46), A Ohidul Mattabar (23), his wife Karima Bibi (20) and S Mijanur Talukdar (36), his two wives Noonehara Bibi (33) and Sagina Talukdar (33).

The arrest was made by seven special police teams with the help of West Bengal Police.

The modus operandi of the gang, which used to carry only small screwdrivers and hammers to break into houses, was that while staying in lodging houses in the city, they used to visit several residential areas under the pretext of selling bed sheets and plastic flowers, and identify the locked houses, before striking.

They used to dispose off the stolen jewellery at Madaripur in Bangladesh.

According to Chennai City Police Commissioner Letika Saran 79 cases of grille offences' had been registered and the gang had stolen jewellery weighing 1,358 sovereigns and Rs 23 lakh in cash.

Ms Letika Saran said 66 cases were registered in the city and in adjacent Chengalpattu East police district, ten were registered in Madurai and one each in Tirunelveli, Vellore and Bangalore.

UNI