Notorious Burglar Mantri Shankar Arrested

The Hyderabad police today arrested notorious 60-year-old burglar Mantri Shankar, involved in more than 250 burglaries since 1979 and convicted 209 times, along with the three of his associates identified as Abdul Latif Khan, Mohammed Majeed and Mohammed Imtiyaz.

Speaking to the media afterwards, Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar said that Shankar was the prime accused in six cases of robbery in Hyderabad and Rachakonda in just the last three weeks despite being arrested under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act four times.

"Though we invoked the PD Act against him four times, Shankar was not deterred. After being released from jail on December 4, he has already committed six thefts along with his associates in the last twenty days. The gang robbed houses in the Begumpet, Vanasthalipuram and Kushaiguda neighbourhoods of the city. Shankar would roam residential colonies during the day to identify locked houses where residents were away. The gang would then return at night to break into the houses by removing the iron grills of the windows or breaking the locks. Once inside, they would break open the almirahs and safes in the houses, and take away cash and any other costly items they found," the CP said.

Cash worth Rs 19.9 lakh, 100 grams of gold ornaments and two bikes have been recovered from the accused so far.