Chandigarh: ‘Tuesday gang’ busted with arrest of three

According to the police, the gang preferred to carry out the break-ins on Tuesdays to take advantage of the relatively lean activity in local markets and predictable neighbourhood routines

A burglars’ gang that used to strike only on Tuesdays was busted with the arrest of three members. According to the police, the gang has targeted at least three houses in the city’s northern sectors in the last fortnight, and has also been active in parts of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

According to police, three major cases, under the jurisdiction of the Sector 3 police station, have been solved with their arrest (HT)

The accused have been identified as Satpal Singh of Palwal, Haryana, the primary strategist behind the thefts, Ravi alias Pandit of Pinjore, Panchkula, the logistics handler, and Nikhil Kumar of Ropar, the co-executor. A cache of stolen luxury items, including seven branded watches, gold, silver, counterfeit equipment, specialised housebreaking machinery and a motorcycle with several fake registration numbers have been recovered from them.

Why they preferred Tuesdays

According to the police, the gang preferred to carry out the break-ins on Tuesdays to take advantage of the relatively lean activity in local markets and predictable neighbourhood routines. This, they said, helped the accused avoid detection.

Fake number plates, safe houses in Punjab & Haryana

To move undetected across state borders and inside targeted sectors, the gang used motorcycles fitted with multiple sets of fake number plates. They carried heavy-duty industrial equipment, including high-speed cutter machines and custom housebreaking tools to break the advanced locks. The gang used a network of safe houses across Punjab and Haryana to stash looted property to leave minimal trace in the immediate jurisdiction where the crime occurred.

Police said three major cases, under the jurisdiction of the Sector 3 police station, have been solved with their arrest. Two of the incidents took place during the intervening night of September 8 and 9 while one took place during the intervening night of September 1 and 2. One of the complainants, Surendra Mohan Singh Sandhu, a resident of Sector 8, was present at home when the gang broke in. Sandhu said he had gone to sleep around 11 pm when the gang sneaked in, went to the first floor, cut open the locker and decamped with his family’s jewellery.

Police said two of the accused – Singh and Pandit, were previously caught in eight cases, including attempt-to-murder and armed robbery. Police are working with their counterparts in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to probe the accused’s involvement in other cases.