JOIN USWATCH: All-women burglars give traders jitters
A gang of six women is under the police radar after a rise in burglaries in the trading hub of Chickpet, south division and Peenya Industrial Area.
The gang, covering themselves with bedsheets on the pretext of protecting themselves from cold, are giving businessmen sleepless nights.
The police have formed a special team to nab the notorious gang.
In one case, the women struck at B Byrappa and Sons, a textile shop in Chickpet last Wednesday by breaking open the shutter and looting cash.
The entire incident was recorded by CCTV cameras installed inside and outside the shop. The footage shows the six women arriving with a child at the shop on Wednesday at 5.30 am. As they sit near the shop for a while, three women begin breaking open the shutters while the other women hold up the bedsheet to provide them cover.
Two other women then help the three enter the shop and they close the shutter.
Inside, a woman goes straight to the cash counter and breaks the cash draw with a screwdriver and picks up Rs 4.20 lakh. As she returns to the shutter and taps on it, the three women lift it to let her out while the others keep a watch on the road. The gang then flees from the spot.
The incident came to light around 11.30 am after manager Eshwar H Y opened the shop for the day. He later filed a complaint with the City Market police.
A similar incident was reported in Peenya Industrial Area, where the gang, posing as ragpickers, broke open shutters of a factory manufacturing raw materials for steel plates and looted goods worth Rs 2.50 lakh. A couple of burglaries were also reported in the south division and the police suspect the same gang’s role in all the incidents.
A senior police officer said a special team has been formed to nab the gang. “The incident took place early in the morning and went unnoticed. We are studying the CCTV footage to check if they were arrested earlier in burglary cases,” said a police officer.