Author: Our Staff Reporter
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 12, 2002
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/11/12/stories/2002111203290300.htm
Four persons allegedly involved
in robberies reported at the residences of the Excise Collector and a relative
of former Union Minister, Shanti Bhushan, on November 1 and November 5
respectively have been arrested by the Special Staff of the South Delhi
police.
The arrests have exposed an organised
network of illegal Bangladeshi migrants who come to the Capital through
an agent, commit a series of crimes and then return to the native country.
All this with the help of the hawala channel.
Addressing mediapersons, the Additional
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Praveer Ranjan, said the four were
nabbed when they were about to board a train for Howrah at Ghaziabad railway
station around 8-30 p.m. on Saturday.
The accused have been identified
as Mohsin (28), Mohammad Yunus (21), Zakir (20) and Mohammad Hasan (27).
While Mohsin, Yunus and Zakir are from Bagarhat district in Bangladesh,
Hasan is a resident of Khulna district, also in Bangladesh.
The police recovered one mobile
phone, seven wrist watches and gold jewellery worth Rs. 6 lakh from the
bags the accused were carrying at the time of their arrest.
Interrogation of the accused revealed
that they had committed the robberies in the house of V.K. Jain in New
Friends Colony and Rajni Rani's house at Anand Vihar in which Mr. Bhushan
was injured, along with a police personnel and a security guard.
According to the police, the gang
-- nicknamed Zakir-Khalil -- gathered in the forest area near Mr. Jain's
house on the evening on November 1. They waited for the night to descend.
In the meanwhile, a couple of gang members carried out a recce of the house
and in the early hours of November 2 they struck.
``The gang targets the head of the
family and in the event of slightest resistance from him, they attack but
only to terrorise so that other family members give in,'' Ranjan said.
A similar modus operandi was used
in Anand Vihar incident and also a robbery in Sector 56, Noida, on November
4.
Significantly, the gang is supported
and funded with the help of what they call "border operators''. "The accused
were smuggled into the country with the help of the agent based in Delhi
for long, but essentially native of Bangladesh.
The agent arranges their journey
to the Capital. He provides them rented accommodation and other logistics,
like fake names and odd jobs, in the areas with fair concentration of Bangladeshi
migrants,'' said the Addl. DCP.
The gang then targets a house, mostly
located on the corner of a locality and giving way to vast open space.
They use the same escape route. The booty is shared between them in the
jungle itself. However, they do not dispose off the cash, valuables and
other stolen items, but handed over to the agent. He is responsible for
the disposal of stolen items.
The gang members, after committing
a series of crimes, leave for their home. In the meanwhile, their families
keep getting the money through hawala in their homes. Most of the items
stolen are, however, disposed of in the Capital.
The "border operator'' or the agent
then arranges for the return of the gang members to Bangladesh. "These
migrants just have to commit crimes, hand over the booty to the agent.
The rest, right down to the railway tickets, is arranged by the operator.
They take about 10 per cent commission of the booty,'' explained Ranjan.
The gang members involved in the crime return only after a couple of years
even as a batch would be "inducted''.
The accused have revealed the name
of one such agent and the police are trying to nab him. The police have
not ruled out the possibility of some of them managing to escape from other
railway stations. The gang usually comprises 10 to 12 members.
The police now say at least 25 such
cases reported in and around Delhi in the recent past could be solved following
further interrogation of the accused who are on police remand.
