4 notorious robbers held

The police arrested four notorious criminals who robbed people at gun- and knife-point at various places in the city.

The police seized two country-made firearms and other lethal weapons from the arrested Syed Abrar (29), a resident of Marathahalli, Nazarullah (24), Tausif Ahmed (28) and Syed Sheikh Tabreez (28), all three from Kadugondanahalli.

The police said that they have also seized two pistols and four live rounds, two motorcycles with fake registration numbers, two daggers and cash of Rs 80,000.

According to the police, the suspects used to target pygmy deposit collectors and also people who deposited money in banks. They used to follow such people on motorcycles and rob them after threatening to injure them or even kill them.

On the afternoon of April 5, 2018, the gang had threatened one Madhusudan who was going towards Electronics City at APR Road near Hongasandra and robbed him of his cash bag and escaped.

He registered a police complaint and investigations were under way.

On April 13, the police said that based on a tip-off, they arrested the suspects near SLV Apartments in Begur. Around 22 cases that were registered at Gangammanagudi, Amruthahalli, Madiwala, Ramamurthynagar, Banaswadi, Kodigehalli, Bommanahalli, K R Puram, Hennur, Nandini Layout, Soladevanahalli, Indiranagar and Kolar were detected by the police.

Cops clueless

The arrested bought two motorcycles and used fake registration plates to commit their crimes, the police said. All the four used to wear full-face helmets when they committed crimes.

Numerous victims had given the police the registration numbers that they noted down and since they were fake, the police were unable to trace them.

After the April 5 incident, the police arrested the suspects based on the CCTV footage. The police analysed body descriptions and the dress the suspects wore from CCTV footage and began to pick up habitual offenders for questioning during which they stumbled upon the operation of the new gang, the police said.

They arrested them based on the descriptions given by their relatives. The police suspect the gang may have committed over 50 robberies of which only 22 are only reported.