Five high-profile thieves held in Gurgaon

Five men, all members of a high-profile gang involved in over 100 cases of thefts in posh areas of the National Capital Region (NCR), were arrested here, police said Friday.

The Haryana Police Crime Branch of Sector 45, headed by Yashwant Singh, arrested the five high-tech thieves and found stolen laptops and electronic items on them, said a police officer.

A Sonata Gold car with registration number DL 4S AC 0073 and a Maruti Zen (DL 8CC 6596) were also recovered from the arrested men.

The recovered items include 34 laptops, four LCD-LED TVs, two home theatres, ornaments and watches.

Those arrested were identified as Manish alias Suraj (27), Zameel Khan (32), Alok Kumar (27), Sagar Sharma and Mangal.

Gang leader Manish alias Suraj, a B.Com. under-graduate, hails from Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and was living in Noida at a rented accommodation.

Sagar and Mangal were living in Noida while Zameel Khan and Alok Kumar are residents of Gurgaon.

Alok owns a shop, A-One computers, in Gurgaon's Bhargav Palace market.

"The gang was involved in more that five dozen thefts in posh areas of Gurgaon, including DLF, Sushant Lok, sector 52, 56, 40. They were also active in Karnal, Faridabad and Noida," Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Sharma said.

"They used to enter the posh residential colonies wearing good looking clothes in Sonata Gold and Zen cars during day time. Gang leader Manish was well versed in English and that helped them in entering the targeted area," Sharma said.

"To avoid getting arrested, they used social networking cites to contact one another rather than mobile phones. They used to sell the stolen items through online portal OLX within hours of incident," Sharma added.

The gang bought cars from the money they earned by selling stolen items.

Gang leader Manish was posing himself as a social worker and was preparing political ground for himself in Faridabad and Noida.

He was also arrested for thefts in 2011, but after that, he changed his method of action to conduct crime.

"We are grilling them on police remand while their two aides from Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh are yet to be arrested," said a crime branch officer.