Alert residents help police bust interstate burglars’ gang, 3 held

BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough, police succeeded in busting a three-member interstate gang of burglars with the help of alert Koh-e-Fiza residents on Wednesday. The gang had committed over dozen and a half burglaries, mostly during daytime, in Koh-e-Fiza and other posh areas of old city in past seven months.
Valuables and electronic goods worth around Rs 6 lakh have been recovered from the possession of the accused.Before shifting their base to Bhopal, accused committed thefts in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Those arrested include a chemistry tutor, an occult practitioner and another accused, who resorted to unlawful acts to make money.
According to modus operandi, burglars dropped newspaper, magazine or balloon at the house to find out if someone was inside the house or not. Thereafter, they would apologize and move to other houses in the locality to commit burglary.
The accused have been identified as Anil Borkar, 29, a native of Nagpur, 32-year-old Umesh Mishra of Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh and Kamlesh Patle, 33, a resident of Balaghat.
Borkar is the kingpin of the gang while Mishra holds a post graduate degree in science and Patel indulged in occult practices to hypnotize people.
Addressing a press conference, superintendent of police (north), Arvind Saxena said that police retrieved CCTV footage of one of the incidents and showed to residents of Koh-e-Fiza asking them to help cops in nabbing the burglars.
Station house officer of Koh-e-Fiza police station received a tip-off about a suspect roaming in Indra Vihar Colony a day ago. Subsequently, Anil Borkar was taken into custody and tools used in breaking locks were recovered from his possession.
During interrogation, he revealed names of gang members and two others were taken into custody.
They told police that Borkar committed burglary while Mishra kept an eye outside the house. The third accused Patel sold the stolen valuables.
Accused confessed to his involvement in 14 burglaries so far. Of them, 13 were reported in Koh-e-Fiza area and one in Shahjehnabad. The gang kingpin had arranged rented accommodation. All the three accused are habitual offenders and have cases registered against them, mostly in Balaghat.