7 members of inter-state burglary gang arrested, gold & silver worth Rs 36L recovered

Belagavi: In a significant breakthrough, Harugeri police arrested seven members of an inter-state burglary gang and recovered stolen valuables worth Rs 36.1 lakh in connection with a house-break case reported earlier this year.The arrested were identified as Ravi Shinde, 32, Sunil Natha Pawar, 27, Shankar alias Bihari Saiba Jadhav, 25, Dileep Tukaram Shinde, 25, Kishore Rajabahu More, 27, Vinod Gangaram Shinde, 23, and Mithun Chimmaji Jadhav, 24. Most of the accused are residents of Jalna and Parbhani districts in Maharashtra.Addressing the press conference here on Monday, SP K Ramarajan said the case was registered following a complaint filed by Abhishek Suresh Pandey, a resident of Vidyanagar in Harugeri of Raibag taluk, on Feb 7, 2026. In his complaint, Pandey stated that unidentified persons broke the lock of his house on February 6 and decamped with the valuables kept in the house.SP Ramarajan said the burglars stole around 280 grams of gold ornaments worth about Rs 22 lakh and 1.5 kg of silver puja articles valued at approximately Rs 1.3 lakh from the house at Vidyanagar. During the same incident, the accused also targeted the house of Saraswati Sanju Badiger, another resident of Harugeri, and allegedly stole 25 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs 81,000 and Rs 7,000 in cash. Based on the complaint, Harugeri police registered a case and launched an investigation.Acting on instructions from SP Ramarajan and under the supervision of Additional SP BR Basaragi and Athani DySP Prashant Munnoli, a special investigation team was constituted. The team conducted a detailed investigation and technical analysis before tracking down and arresting 7 accused from Maharashtra.During the operation, police seized 267 grams of gold ornaments worth about Rs 29 lakh, 1 kg and 80 grams of silver articles worth Rs 3 lakh, a Nissan car valued at Rs 3.5 lakh, 6 mobile phones worth about Rs 50,000, and Rs 9,830 in cash. The total value of the recovered property is estimated at Rs 36,11,830.Police investigations revealed that the accused belong to a notorious inter-state burglary gang. During interrogation, the suspects reportedly confessed to their involvement in several similar property offences across Karnataka, including in Athani, Ugar, Rabakavi, Chikkamagaluru, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Kolar, Harapanahalli, Chitradurga, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Bagalkot, Davanagere, and Gadag.The operation was carried out under the leadership of Harugeri CPI Ratankumar Jiragyal and PSI Malappa Pujari, with the assistance of personnel from Harugeri, Kudachi, Kagwad, Aigali, and Athani police stations, along with technical support from the Belagavi district police team. Police said further investigation is under way to ascertain the gang's involvement in other burglary cases across the state.SP Ramarajan said the gang is so notorious that it assaulted the police during the operation.