They were not ordinary thieves

BANGALORE: The city police claimed to have arrested 26 persons for allegedly diverting the attention of women and escaping with their valuables. With the arrest, 55 cases have been solved and 2.406 kilo grams of gold jewels worth Rs 65 lakh have been recovered from them.The police said that the cases of attention diversions were on a rise in the recent days.  “The accused used to dress well and targeted elderly women walking alone on roads. They claimed that they were CBI sleuths, CID sleuths or crime police in plain clothes and told the women that a murder had been reported in the vicinity and it was not safe to wear gold ornaments. Later, they asked them to put their valuables in a cover and by diverting their attention, they used to escape with their gold jewels,” the police explained to the media men.The investigations revealed that the gang members were residing at Hussaini Colony on Irani Galli in Bidar. A special team including two DCPs, an ACP, 12 inspectors and other staff was formed to arrest them. “On February 24 night, the city police team along with Bidar police, raided the houses of suspected persons. To evade arrest, the miscreants pelted stones at the police to drive them back. However, the police succeeded in nabbing 35 persons and 26 among them were arrested later while other nine were let off after knowing they were innocents,” the police explained.These 26 persons were identified by complainants in 55 cases and in some other cases their faces matched with the sketches drawn based on the details given by victims. The accused include Taki Ali, Gulab Ali, Muslim Ali, Raja Hussain, Mas Hasan, Sameer, Ujjath Ali, Salman Ali, Papa Ali, Muzlum Hussain, Hussein Ali, Muzamil and others.