Laptop-cellphone lifter gang busted on Mumbai-bound train

INDORE: A gang of burglars from Tamil Nadu which burgled high-end laptops and cell-phones from hostels and trains in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh was busted on board the Indore-Mumbai Avantika Express train between Ujjain and Dewas.
Two plain clothed government railway police (GRP-Ujjain) observation team constables Subedar and Vishvesh Gautam helped the railway cops bust the inter-state gang with the arrest of a 35-year-old man Munusami and his 29-year-old nephew Chandrashekharan, both residents of Vellore district from the general coach of the Mumbai-bound train on Monday evening.
Eleven laptops, one tablet and 25 cell-phones, all high end models were subsequently recovered from the bag of the two laptop and cell-phone lifters, special director general of police (railways) MS Gupta said on Tuesday.
Subsequent grilling of the school dropout uncle-nephew duo revealed that they were key members of Tamil Nadu gang, which also comprised four to five other relatives.
Quizzing by GRP-Ujjain deputy SP Rashmi Agrawal Dube and GRP-Ujjain in-charge Dipak Sejwar revealed that the gypsy gang travelled frequently between different cities of Maharashtra and MP. “The gang which comprised family members only, stayed in slums for a month in each city and burgled laptops and cell-phones from private hostels and rented flats of college goers, particularly medical, engineering and management students,” added Indore GRP SP MC Jain.
“Till now investigations have revealed that the gypsy gang members have burgled laptops and cell-phones from rooms of students in cities, including Ahmednagar and Nasik in Maharashtra and Bhopal and Indore in MP. They have also burgled a laptop from a train between Indore and Ujjain a week back,” said Jain.
The duo along with other family members stayed in a slum dwelling in Bhopal between March 15 and April 12 and burgled laptops and cell-phones from Ayodhya Nagar and Bagh Sevania localities. Subsequently they shifted to slums in Dewas district from where they travelled to Indore and committed burglary in Kanadia and other areas of the city.
“The burgled laptops were sold in markets of Tamil Nadu and Mumbai by the gang. The GRP have also stumbled upon international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) numbers of 19 other cell-phones which too were burgled by the gang in the past and efforts are on to recover these phones,” the GRP SP informed.
The seized 11 laptops and cell-phones are of reputed brands, including Samsung, Sony, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, Spice and Micromax.