New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS ) Delhi Police have busted a gang of thieves and arrested four persons -- who used to pretend to be deaf and dumb -- and mostly targeted students living on rent in the early hours under the pretext of charity collection, said an official on Saturday.
The official said that the gang used to dispose of stolen items in the open market in Tamil Nadu and police have also recovered 27 stolen mobile phones and 11 laptops from the possession of the gang.
The accused were identified as P. Sathyavelu (22), Shiva (22), both residents of Andhra Pradesh; Kumar (24), a resident of Tamil Nadu, and Prabhu (24), a resident of Karnataka.
Police said that specific inputs were received that four accused involved in burglary incidents would come to Press Enclave Road near Malviya Nagar bus stand to execute their plan of theft.
As per input, the police team laid a strategic trap. “Four suspicious men were spotted and when questioned about their whereabouts, they pretended to be dumb and deaf, communicating only through gestures,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Ankit Chauhan.
Additionally, they also presented a letter showing some entries of charitable donations given to them by different people with signatures and some details.
“Upon their cursory search and checking of their backpacks, three mobile phones and two laptops were recovered which were found to be stolen. Further, upon their instance, 21 more mobile phones and nine laptops were also recovered from their rented accommodation in Village Bhopura, District Ghaziabad,” said the DCP.
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, the DCP said that they used to operate in the early hours of the day to target the houses randomly especially in the areas adjoining the educational institutions.
“As the students live there, they have costly electronic gadgets like mobile phones, laptops, I-Pads, headphones etc. If somebody was found awakened in the room they pose themselves as a student or member of Deaf & Dumb School/orphanage and urge for donation in the name of school/orphanage, showing a certificate,” said the DCP.
“After stealing electronic items they sold the stolen stuff at decent prices in Tamil Nadu,” the DCP added.