Hyderabad: Summer vacations are the time when criminal gangs, particularly interstate criminal gangs involved in dacoities and robberies, move out of their bases to strike and loot money. This happens as many families lock their homes and go for holidays, or when people sleep on terraces to escape the scorching heat.
Tracking movements of such gangs has always been a huge task for the police who have to depend on ‘informers’ on their payrolls for information.
With technological advancements coming in, police officials are however now tracking the movements of sich gangs and ensuring that they do not get involved in property offences.
“Through our informer network we collect mobile phone numbers of the gang members. If not all, at least one or two do carry the phones with them when they move out of their native places to other states for committing offences,” said a senior official of Hyderabad central crime station, who did not want to be named.
Using the data, police officials map the areas visited by gangs to do recce and alert the local police to prevent possible burglaries or dacoity. According to senior cops, house occupants in summer often prefer to sleep on terraces or put on air coolers that are loud, which offenders use to their advantage
Hyderabad and its outskirts have seen ‘chaddi and baniyan’ gangs from Gujarat frequenting the city in the past. These gangs strike at houses particularly on the outskirts. To have first hand information about the movement of gangs the Hyderabad police has also set up an informer network in the habitats where gang members stay.
“Not one or two, there are villages full of people who are professional burglars, dacoits or robbers. So we maintain an informer network there and pay the ‘khabris’,” said another police official of Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force.
Another gang frequenting the city from central India is the Pardhi gang, known for being violent. These gang members attack people and loot them. Similarly, the members of the ‘Sisodhia’ gang from Madhya Pradesh also come to Hyderabad during summers.
Apart from the local gangs, a bunch of old offenders are also usually under surveillance. “We monitor the them periodically, before the vacation seasons like summer or festivals. We get orders to monitor the movement of such offenders,” explained an official of the Rachakonda Special Operations Teams.
The facial detection cameras installed at various important places in the city including Secunderabad railway station, Jubilee Bus Station and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station keep monitoring the entry of outsiders to the city.
“Whenever a criminal enters through the railway station or bus stations, our systems send us an alert. The man/women might be a burglar, dacoit, terrorist, Maoist or any other offender,” said an official of Hyderabad police.
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