Chaddar gang members who stole under cover of bed-sheets arrested

A CCTV grab of the chaddar gang at work

After a month of investigating, the Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi and Kongaon police have arrested 10 members of the 'chaddar gang,' which has looted several shopkeepers. More than five teams of the police were in search of the gang that operated in Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi and Kalyan, and the 10 accused were arrested with the help of CCTV footage. The gang was given the name due to the use of chaddars (bed-sheets) in their modus operandi.

Under the bed-sheet
According to police, the chaddar gang, most of whose arrested members have come from Rajasthan, has become active during the winter season. A few of the gang members pretend to be beggars, sleep on the streets, and keep an eye on shops. After deciding on one, some gang members hook up a chaddar in front of it at night, and keep watch to alert associates. The associates, hidden behind the bed-sheet, break open the locks and steal the valuables. A police official said, "There are more than 10 members in the gang and we are looking for the others. We are yet to recover the valuables from them, so we cannot disclose their names. They are all from Rajasthan."

Chaddar chors strike
On December 14, four members of the gang targetted two mobile phone shops in Kalyan and stole phones worth over R23 lakh. On the morning of December 9, posing as beggars, they broke into Unicorn Info Solutions, a mobile shop, where they stole phones worth R18 lakh, and Jai Ambe store at Lalchakki area in Kalyan (West), where they stole phones worth R23 lakh. After this robbery the police found through CCTV footage that the same modus operandi was used in the robberies that took place at Bhiwandi, Kalyan and Ulhasnagar. The police teams zeroed in on a mobile phone store in Vasai which the gang was to target next. The police caught them when they were about to break into it.

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