Jammu and Kashmir police cracked burglary and extortion cases and arrested ten accused persons besides recovered gold ornaments worth lakhs of rupees in Srinagar, a police spokesman said.
He said these burglars were donning combat uniforms and dummy weapons to loot people.
He said on May 5, 2021, Police Station (PS) received a written complaint from Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, a resident of Khawaja Bagh Maloora, that during the intervening night some six to eight unidentified gunmen wearing combat dress barged into his residential house and looted jewellery, cash and mobile phone.
Accordingly a case under relevant sections of law was registered and investigation taken up.
Moreover, on July 8,2021 another complainant Mohammad Rafiq Ahangar, a resident of Hokarsar Umerabad, also lodged a complaint to the effect that during the intervening night some four to six unidentified gunmen wearing combat dresses entered his house and looted jewellery and cash.
In this regard, another case under relevant sections of law was registered and investigation taken up.
Accordingly, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Station House Officer (SHO) PS Parimpora under the close supervision of SDPO West Jan Muzaffar and SP City West Perbeet Singh was constituted to probe, trace and arrest the accused involved in the commission of crime.
During the course of investigation, officers taking assistance of modern techniques and leads from evidences learnt about the involvement of a gang of 10 accused persons identified as Tariq Ahmad Rather, son of Ghulam Mohammad Rather, a resident of Tangpora; Barkat Husain, Son of Ghulam Rasool Hajam, a resident of Mirgund Pattan; Mohammad Yousuf Sheikh, son of Abdul Rehman Sheikh, a resident of Khan Sahib Budgam; Shahbaz Ahmad Laway, son of Mohammad Afzal Laway, a resident of Sutlan Pora Pattan; Manzoor Ahmad Waza, son of Abdul Aziz Waza resident of Matipora Pattan; Altaf Ahmad Guroo, son of Abdul Khaliq Guroo resident of Maloor; Farooq Ahmad Lone, son of Abli Lone, a resident of Khan Sahib Budgam; Mohammad Maqbool Laway son of Ghulam Mohammad resident of Sultan Pora Pattan; Jan Mohammad Shiekh, son of Mohd Yousuf Shiekh, resident of Raithan Check Budgam and Bilal Ahmad Kumar, son of Sona Ullah Kumar, a resident of Sanoor Kalipora Magam Budgam.
Preliminary investigation also revealed that the burglars would first reccee the suspected areas to find out the target houses invariably the ones where marriage ceremony would be scheduled in near future. They had adopted a novel way in which they would don army camouflage uniform and enter into the houses with dummy pistols and assault rifles on the pretext of cordon and search. When they got ingress into the victim/target houses, they would lock the family in one room, snatch their mobile phones and during search, loot the valuable gold items and cash.
Accordingly, the accused persons were arrested and during questioning, they confessed about their involvement in the commission of crime. Upon their disclosure, police parties raided different locations and successfully recovered gold items worth Rs 22 lacs, cash to the amount of Rs 3.30 lacs and a vehicle worth Rs 2 lacs purchased out of the stolen property. Besides, camouflage uniforms, belts, boots and caps used to commit the crime along with 5 dummy AK-47, 4 dummy Pistols, iron rods were also recovered.
