The five accused in the theft case in Noida is a family of robbers with the father, son, sister and sister-in-law indulging in crimes like this for years. The family members are trained by father Sharif, who then recces houses in order to find an opportune time to strike. The family also lives a lavish lifestyle.
According to the police, Sharif was the gang leader, while he trained his son Arsalan, sister Farzana and sister-in-law Roshan to commit such crimes.
"Sharif would wake up as early as 4 am and run his mind on which area to target in the city. Later, he would wake up others and train them as to how to break the locks. They used to plan their daily schedule and roam in different sectors," said a senior police officer.
The modus operandi of the gang was that they used to roam around in different sectors and target the locked houses. The ladies used to take the weapon along with them and break the locks and then call others to finally commit theft.
"The ladies were the ones to go to the locked houses to be safe and if anyone doubted them they would act as maids. They were professionally trained in breaking into houses as they would break locks within seconds," said a senior police officer.
Police said that they targeted posh colonies and had been active for the past 10 years. The family had built a 5-storey house in Khoda village of Ghaziabad which has been seized.
Sharif lived with his wife, sister, sister-in-law and three children in Khoda colony.
On March 31, burglars broke into Gujarat Governor Om Prakash Kohli's daughter's house in Noida and stole cash and jewellery. The theft happened between 8 am and 3 pm at sector 50 when no one was home. Police had suspected the thieves of conducting a recce as they knew when the caretaker would not be present.
