39 high-end phones stolen at concert recovered in Pune

PUNE: The city police have arrested five men who flew into the city from Delhi and Ghaziabad, stayed in star hotels and stole several high-end cellphones over the weekend during a music concert. The police recovered 39 smartphones worth Rs28.4 lakh from the gang. The ring leader, however, managed to escape and the police are searching for him. The gang targetted their victims at the VH1 Supersonic music festival, which was held at Mahalaxmi Lawns in Chandannagar between Friday night and Sunday night. The police said they were flooded with several complaints about the thefts during the festival days and were working on certain clues to trace the thieves.The Airport police identified the arrested men as Asad Mohammed (32), Shahbaz Khan (26), Rahul Kangale (30) and Nadim Malik (40), all residents of Delhi, and Nizam Qureshi (35) from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. They came to Pune from Delhi on a flight. "We are tracing their ring leader," senior inspector Vilas Sonde told TOI."All the arrested men work as security guards and peons in private companies in Delhi. Their ring leader knows about crowds that attend such big music concerts. The gang, after landing in Pune, moved into a star hotel near the concert venue and purchased online tickets for the festival," Sonde said."They reached the venue in the evening and kept a close watch on the crowd. The gang members would target people in the crowd who were getting drunk and steal their phones from their pockets and purses," the officer added. "After receiving several complaints of cellphone thefts at the concert since Friday night, we laid a trap at the venue on Sunday evening. Our teams, headed by inspector Sangeeta Mali and sub-inspector Ravindra Dhaware, kept an eye on suspicious movement and picked up two of the gang members moments after they stole cellphones from their victims. Their questioning led to the arrest of the other three," Sonde said."The ring leader was supposed to look for customers for the stolen phones," he added.This is the second arrest of its kind after the Hadapsar police on November 26 caught two men from Santacruz and Bhendi Bazaar in Mumbai for stealing 35 expensive phones during a music concert at a private property in Hadapsar.Meanwhile, the police also arrested Prashant K Kumar (29) of Bhadravati in Karnataka, who operated independently and committed cellphone thefts at the same music concert. "We have recovered five mobile phones worth Rs1.87 lakh from Kumar," Sonde said.