Mysuru team readies body warrant to bring accused to crime scene

Mysore/Mysuru: The City Police seems to have cracked the recent Vidyaranyapuram jewellery store dacoity case. 

The Pune Police have arrested three persons in Pune and Rajasthan and the information has been passed on by the Maharashtra Police to the Karnataka Director General of Police, who in turn has informed the Mysuru City Police Commissioner. The gang is notorious all over North India for committing robberies. The four-member gang had robbed Amruth Gold and Silver Palace in Vidyaranyapuram on the evening of Aug. 23 and had shot dead 24-year-old bystander Chandru of Dadadahalli while escaping. During the loot, they had downed the shutters, assaulted shop owner Dharmendra and also held him hostage with a gun so that he could not move. 

Following the arrest, the Mysuru Police have initiated the process of producing a body warrant to bring them to Mysuru from Pune. They are ‘suspects’ as their photos, videos and fingerprints have been matched. Once the legal process is complete, they will be brought to Mysuru in a day or two, Police sources said. 

Notorious Tau gang: According to the data provided by the Pune Police and the Mysuru City Police sources, the accused are Satendra Pal Singh alias Sunar, Sanjay alias Raju from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. 

The name and identity of another arrested has not been released though his photo has been provided. 

Accused Sanjay used to be a Constable in the Uttar Pradesh Police but was terminated from his service after getting convicted for murder in 2007.  

The trio were part of the notorious ‘Tau gang’ and were arrested by a joint team of Haridwar Police and Special Task Force (STF) on July 12. After the arrest, the Police recovered valuables worth Rs. 80 lakh from them. They were also arrested earlier in connection with a Rs. 2 crore robbery in Haridwar. 

Wanted in eight States

Mysuru Police Officers said that the accused managed to get bail in both the cases and four among the gang members are suspected to have come to Mysuru for dacoity. The gang is wanted in eight States including Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The robbers usually use an ambulance to escape from the crime scenes.

The gang has been active for around 25 years and was originally headed by Inderpal Chaudhary, who was arrested a few years ago and is currently lodged in Bulandshahr jail. After his arrest, his nephew Satish Chaudhary took over the reins and divided responsibilities like collecting information, ‘recruiting’ new members, planning escape routes etc.  

Professional approach

The gang was named after the new kingpin’s uncle or ‘tau’. Sources said the members called each other ‘tau’. According to the Police, the gang worked like a corporate company and had a professional approach to crime. Police sources said that the gang usually keeps a number of escape routes ready and is known to use ambulances to get away. 

In the Vidyaranyapuram case too, the gang managed to vanish soon after committing the crime and even before the Police could enforce nakabandi at all entry and exit points. Mysuru Police have now gathered that the gang had planned to loot the shop on the Varamahalakshmi festival day on Aug. 20. 

The visuals of the gang members doing a recce of the shop for the festival loot has been captured in one of the CCTV cameras near the shop. However, it is not clear why the gang did not loot the shop on Aug. 20.

City Police sources said that the Pune Police have matched the fingerprints of the gang and the same has also been confirmed by the Central Finger Print Bureau that maintains a database of fingerprints of criminals, both national and international. 

Meanwhile, reports said that the Police are also looking at the angle of personal enmity between two shop owners for the reason behind the dacoity.