Notorious MP Gang Looting Cigarette Cartons Nabbed

Four members of the notorious "Kanjar Gang" of Madhya Pradesh, which had last month waylaid a container truck and looted cigarette cartons worth Rs. 4 crores near Peddaamberpet on the outskirts of the city, were arrested by the Rachakonda Police.

This is the first time that members of the Kanjar Gang have been caught by the police. Forget catching them, the police have been feeling threatened by them with the gang striking terror among the MP police by making many attempts to even kill the police personnel.

The gang is said to be operating in various parts of the country, mainly targeting trucks and other heavy vehicles transporting cigarettes. The gang's set target is stated to Rs. 20 crores per year.

Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat on Friday produced before the media the four arrested members of the gang - Rajaram, Sunil Chavda, Raja Babu alias Satish and Hakam Singh, all residents of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh - and detailed how the police succeeded in nabbing them.

Narrating the details of the highway dacoity that had occurred on August 19 near the Outer Ring Road at Peddamberpet under the Hayathnagar PS limits, the Commissioner said that the container truck with 647 cartons of cigarettes had left the ITC company godown in Musheerabad in the city for Renigunta. About 30 members of the Kanjar Gang, who had come in two Innovas and lorries, waylaid the truck and dragged the driver Akhilesh Yadav out of the vehicle, and threatened and tied him up. They then took him to an isolated place, and unloaded the cigarette cartons into the lorries they had brought along with them, and fled from the spot.

Upon a complaint lodged by the lorry driver, a case was registered in the Hayathnagar Police Station. The Rachakonda police took the case as a prestige issue and formed special teams. The teams collected CCTV footage from all tollgates from Deglorr (Maharashtra) to Ananthapur to the ORR. Besides this they also visited Mahasrashtra and MP and examined old offenders.

During the course of the investigations, the officers picked up a minor clue about the suspicious movements of an Innova with an MP registration number, and identified it as belonging to the members of the Kanjar Gang.

The investigating teams then proceeded to Indore, Dewas and Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh to track down the gang. They eventually received a tipoff and proceeded to a bus station at Dewas and arrested the four.

All the four arrested were stated to have confessed. The police also seized the four vehicles used in the dacoity from parking yards at Indore where the gang members said they usually parked their vehicles after committing offences.

After producing the four before the local magistrate, the police brought them to Hyderabad on transit remand for further investigations.