Inter-state gang chief poses as cop, arrested

Hyderabad: The Central Zone Task Force arrested king-pin of an inter-state ‘Irani gang’ of Bidar who was involved in several cases of theft by posing as a cop. They recovered about half kg gold items worth Rs 15 lakh from his possession. According to police, Tanveer Hussain Ali alias Shaik Tanveer Hussain Ali, 48, resident of Bidar (Karnataka) was moving suspiciously in General Bazar, Secunderabad, on Saturday.

He was apprehended with a bag which contained stolen gold ornaments. During the course of interrogation, he confessed to have committed about eight offences along with his associates. The gang committed several thefts by diverting the attention of people, posing themselves as police personnel in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. In 2010, he was also arrested by Chandanagar, Miyapur and Sanathnagar police for committing similar offences.

The modus operandi was to target gullible people, who used to walk alone on the streets. The gang members would intercept the victims by introducing themselves as police, custom, bomb squad or crime branch officials. They would later take the victim to another gang member, introducing him to be senior police officer. One of the gang members would take the hand bag of the victim, while another would check the victim’s pockets.

In the pretext of checking, they would steal the gold ornaments and cash by diverting their attention.“They would place artificial ornaments wrapped in paper already with them in the victim’s bag”, B Limba Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force said.