‘Iranian gang’ of four nabbed in MP

The accused were identified as H Abu Hyder Ali (52) of Bhopal, R Mehandi Hassan (46) of Bhopal, R Shadiq (35) of Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh and A Hassan (29) of Kalaburagi in Karnataka. Police said the quartet belong to the ‘Iranian gang’ and had robbed several persons employing the same modus operandi in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore. “They would roam on two-wheelers in commercial areas and strike randomly at gullible persons. Once they get what they aimed at, they would escape to their native place,” said Assistant Commissioner Lakshmanan.

‘Iranian gang’ takes its name from the offenders’ lineage. Most of them are  descendants of Iranians settled in Alipur, Karnataka and border areas of Maharashtra.

The incident happened on January 10 when Kaus Mohammed, who works for an Andhra Pradesh-based businessman called Kamalesh Kumar, reached the city in a car with Rs 1.7 crore to buy gold, along with his driver, Dinesh Kumar. When they were walking back to the car with the gold, they were intercepted by a four-member gang who reached the spot on two bikes. They allegedly introduced themselves as Delhi police and escaped with the gold on the pretext of checking their bag.

Elephant Gate police registered a case and constituted a team led by Assistant Commissioner Lakshmanan under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Rajendran. They received information that the gang escaped to Goa and rushed there only to find that they had already boarded a train to Uttar Pradesh.

“We alerted the Railway Protection Force and MP police and shared the photos. They secured the suspects at Adhwa station. They were produced at the local court and brought to the city,” said a senior police officer. They were remanded in judicial custody on Saturday.