Monday, 23 February 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Officials say the gang was planning a big heist in Delhi
The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested an absconding member of the Ghodasan/Chadar gang from New Delhi who was allegedly planning a major heist there as well. The senior superintendent of police of STF Ayush Agrawal said in a Press conference here on Sunday that the STF had been working to arrest the gang members for the past three months as many members of the gang are wanted in several districts of the State apart from being wanted in several other States too. He said that this gang had carried out the theft of several electronic items including mobile phones, laptops, and iPads worth lakhs of rupees from an Apple showroom located at Ranipur in Haridwar in 2018. Even after being wanted by Haridwar police for the theft, the gang carried out another theft in Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar in 2019, said Agrawal.
The SSPs of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar had also announced a bounty of Rs one lakh and Rs 25,000 respectively on the accused. He said that STF was working on the members of the gang in a planned manner and detailed information was being collected for the past three months as many members of the gang were absconding for a long time. Apart from Uttarakhand, the gang members have carried out thefts in several big branded showrooms of mobile phones and laptops in many States too. Agrawal said that the STF had activated informers in the Ghodasan gang itself who informed them about the accused Santosh Jayaswal (26) being present in Delhi to carry out a big heist in Delhi, Gurugram and Noida along with his gang members.
The STF team raided all possible hiding places of the accused in Delhi and finally arrested him on Saturday from the Durgapuri Extension of Delhi. The arrested accused Santosh Jayaswal, a resident of Champaran, Bihar, was allegedly involved in thefts carried out by his gang in Haridwar as well as in Rudrapur in 2018 and 2019, said the SSP. Talking about the modus operandi of the gang members, Agrawal said that the gang generally live in hotels outside big cities and then mark big mobile phone or electronic gadgets showroom for theft. The members then drape themselves in blankets and stand outside the target showroom while one of their members breaks the shutter and enters the shop to steal the products before escaping. The stolen items are sold in neighbouring countries like Nepal which makes it difficult to track them through electronic surveillance.
