Six women arrested for mass chain snatching at Direndra Maharaj’s event

These women had specifically gained entry in the entry to rob the disciples. We are now trying to find out whether there were more people belonging to the gang of women who were present among the two lakh devotees. The thieves have looted a total of 448 grams of gold

MUMBAI: Six women were arrested on Sunday for allegedly stealing gold chains and other gold ornaments of at least 36 women, weighing around 448 grams, during self-styled ‘godman’ Dhirendra Krishna Shastri Maharaj’s event at Central Park Ground in Mira Road on Saturday.

Prayagraj, Feb 03 (ANI): A combination of photos showing Spiritual leader, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri addressing the 'Divya Darbaar' programme at Meja village, in Prayagraj on Thursday. (ANI Photo) (Nitin Sharma)

The Mira Road police have recovered only one chain weighing eight grams from the arrested accused.

According to officers, the arrested women are natives of Rajasthan and are members of a much bigger gang. Police officers said that the six accused took advantage of the huge crowd at the event to steal from the followers.

“We had registered one case of robbery and one case of theft relating to 36 complaints, as the place of offence was one and the same,” said a police officer from Mira Road police station.

After the FIRs were registered on Saturday, the police tightened the security on the second day of the event and kept a close watch through CCTV cameras installed at the entry and exit points of the ground.

“After studying the CCTV recordings of Saturday, we identified six women who were suspected to have committed the thefts and the robbery,” said.

On Sunday the police officers were on alert and kept a watch. As soon as the police saw the suspects, they detained them. On searching the accused the police found one chain of eight grams from one of the accused.

“These women had specifically gained entry in the entry to rob the disciples. We are now trying to find out whether there were more people belonging to the gang of women who were present among the two lakh devotees. The thieves have looted a total of 448 grams of gold,” we are searching for the looted gold ornaments, the officer added.

On Saturday as there was a stampede-like situation, the police officers diverted their attention to making sure no untoward incident takes place and none gets injured due to the crowd which had gathered there. The crowd made it easy for the women to snatch the gold chains and other valuables.

“On Sunday, we deployed more policemen in plain clothes at the venue and it helped us nab the thieves as soon as we spotted them,” said Vijay Singh Bagal, senior police inspector of Mira Road police station.