Ee sala cup namde: Ee sala mobile namde

The Chennai police have busted a 11 member gang of mobile thieves who stole mobile phones during IPL matches in Bengaluru and Chennai. The gang all natives of Jharkhand stole a total of 72 mobile phones in Bengaluru and Chennai.

Speaking to CH from Chennai, Triplicane, Assistant Commissioner of Police R Alagu whose team  busted the gang said ``this gang first stuck in Bengaluru during the RCB vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) match on March 22  and stole the mobile phones there. After a few days, they came to Chennai on March 28 and stuck at Chepauk stadium during the Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match’’.

R Alagu said that using the CCTV footage from the stadium, they generated images of the suspects with the help of the information provided by the victims.

The gang including four minor boys from Jharkhand and West Bengal and had arrived in Bengaluru and Chennai specifically for this reason, police investigations found.

Three of them purchased tickets on the black market to gain entry inside the stadium in Chennai, while the rest of the gang coordinated with them from the outside.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Chennai said ``the suspects, all hailing from Tin Pahar village in Jharkhand, are allegedly part of an interstate gang that brought in youth on a daily wage of Rs 1,000, trained them in distraction thefts and pickpocketing, and deployed them at crowded public spaces such as stadiums, markets, beaches, and bus terminals across India.

After committing the thefts, the stolen phones were allegedly smuggled back to Jharkhand and sold in the Maoist-infested regions, and across the West Bengal-Bangladesh border, the police said.

ACP R Alagu said ``we are in touch in with the Bengaluru police to identify the mobile phones which were stolen from M Chinnaswamy Stadium and will hand them over shortly’’.