Firdous Hassan
Srinagar: Police have busted a gang of Bangladeshi burglars who were active in Goa, Odisha, and Kashmir.
Seven months after looting ATM in Goa, the gang arrived in Pulwama to do the encore. Living up to the image of being the best police force, cops in Pulwama acted swiftly and busted the gang which had given sleepless nights to several states.
On April 8, burglars stole an ATM machine near Government Degree College Pulwama. The burglars looted Rs 24 lakh from the machine.
Later police constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by Additional SP Pulwama to crack the case.
A senior police official told The Kashmir Monitor that the gang of Bangladeshi burglars was doing recce before executing their plan.
He said the gang entered Kashmir illegally using fake Aadhar cards. “This is basically an organized group who entered India through some middleman via West Bengal border. They have committed similar thefts in various parts of India including the recent one in Goa,” he said.
Soon after entering the valley, they also managed SIM cards for communication.
“It was a very complex case since the burglars used to dispose of SIM cards soon after committing the crime. They almost leave no traces, making it very difficult for us,” he said.
Police said the gang used to adopt the same modus operandi everywhere. “They used to steal a car, barge into an ATM, and uproot it with iron rods. They decamped with ATM machine and took out the money before abandoning the car,” he added.
Later the gang succeeded to flee from Kashmir with the stolen money to Bangladesh.
He said throughout- the robbery, the gang choose interior roads in Kashmir to evade police and checkpoints.
Police checked hundreds of CCTV footage to track the movement of the burglars.
Police even hired a private detective through social media to keep track of their movement in Bangladesh.
“We already had their photographs. So, through the detective, we got some leads about the gang and their prospective plan to return to India. SHO Pulwama Azim Khan and other officials played a crucial role in tracking the movement of the gang from Kashmir to Bangladesh,” the senior police official said.
He said the burglars were arrested in the Sangam area of south Kashmir when they were planning to rob a jewelry shop.
“They had only two choices either to continue their robbery in Goa or Kashmir. Since it’s rainy season in Goa, they preferred Kashmir. They were hatching another plan to rob a jewelry shop,” the official said.
The police team identified the burglars as Suman Mal, Farooq Ahmad Ali, and Mohd Ibrahim. They have confessed to the crime.
After nearly two months of investigations, police successfully dismantled the notorious gang of burglars.
The stolen ATM machine was recovered from an orchard dumped in a pit at Dogam Kakapora.
Prior to it, the gang committed a series of robberies in India. Last year, the members of this gang were arrested in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha.
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