City police bust high-tech burglars, hunt on for gang guru

The police seized 3.7 kg gold worth and 20 kg silver worth over Rs 1 crore from the gang, which is suspected to be involved in dozens of house break-ins all across south India. Two walkie-talkie instruments were also seized from them. 

The arrest of Dinakaran (31), Lognathan (55) and Kalidoss (45) came after the nabbing of four members of the gang recently. Now, the police are on the hunt for two more persons, including Thiruvarur Murugan, the leader of the gang, which is suspected to be involved in as many as 19 burglaries in the city, said M Sudhakar, deputy commissioner of police, Anna Nagar. 

Murugan is believed to be the guru of Dinakaran, who in turn has nearly 100 robbery cases pending against him, including 87 burglary cases in Bengaluru alone, police noted. In the last 14 years, he is believed to have pledged several kilos of gold burgled from houses in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was Murugan who trained him in house breaks. The duo is said to be meticulous, who were choosy in selecting ‘assistants’. Instead of mobile phones, they used wireless sets to execute their ‘missions’. 

Murugan used to give Dinakaran and others instructions through walkie-talkie while keeping a watch of the targeted house’s surroundings. The mobiles phones that they used during burglaries were immediately disposed of so that they cannot be tracked. 

Inquiries revealed Loganathan, a partner in the crime, runs jewellery business, while Kalidoss assisted him in exchanging the stolen gold. Based on their confession, police personnel managed to recover stolen gold and silver worth more Rs 1 crore. Police have collected Dinakaran’s fingerprints and sent them to the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) to verify if it matched with any other cases of burglaries in the city. 

Rs 1 crore cheating: Special team rushes to Bengaluru 

A day after two men walked off from a serviced apartment with Rs 1 crore belonging to a businessman after promising to arrange a Rs 50 crore loan to fund his business, a special team from Chennai police rushed to Bengaluru where the conmen are suspected to be. 

Mohanasundaram (55) from Erode, the owner of popular milk brand, came to Chennai after a duo from here convinced him that they can arrange a loan of Rs 50 crore if he paid Rs 1 crore as commission. 

Believing them, Mohanasundaram reached Karpagam Avenue in Raja Annamalai Puram with the cash on Thursday evening, from where the duo took him to a serviced apartment. One of them collected the cash and said he would keep it in the vehicle. Soon, the other person left saying he would fetch some drinking water. Unaware of their plan, Mohanasundaram waited for a while. Only when they failed to return did he realise that he was cheated. He then lodged a complaint. The serviced apartment manager told the police that the suspects said they wanted to check the facilities. 

“In between, one of them went out saying that he had bring another person to show the apartment, and came back Mohanasundaram. The two did not make any payment. The manager came to know about the plan only after Mohanasundaram informed that his money was taken away,” police said.