The gang was involved in 16 thefts across the Vidarbha and Chhindwara district of MP
Nagpur: In a major breakthrough, three members of a gang from Andhra Pradesh involved in 16 thefts across Vidarbha were nabbed by Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Nagpur Rural Police and recovered stolen valuables worth Rs 2.58 lakh from their possession.
Gold Rate
10 july 2025
The arrested accused have been identified as Rajesh Pawalu Goteti (35), Raju Prabhakar Singamsetti (39), and Anil Badri Petla (22), all residents of Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The fourth gang member Vikram Samil Salla (30) is on the run.
According to police, the bank customers carrying cash were targeted by the gang members for the past two years. The gang kept an eye on customers withdrawing lakhs of rupees from the banks. A member of the gang used to get involved with the customer to divert his attention and another member used to snatch the cash while riding pillion on the motorcycle, police said revealing modus-operandi of the thieves.
On Saturday, cash of a bank customer at Ramtek was stolen. The LCB team intensified tracking of the accused persons. The police checked CCTV footage for the around 70 kms long road to identify the accused and apprehended them from Tarsa square near Kanhan. The four-member gang was involved in theft cases reported in Saoner (3), Ramtek (1), Kanhan (1), Mauda (1) area of Nagpur rural police and Warud in Amravati district, Patur in Akola district, Bhandara city and Tumsar in Bhandara district, Faizpur in Jalgaon district, Jalgaon city, Kotwali, Saunsar and Pandhurna in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh.
Under the guidance of Superintendent of Police (SP) Vijay Magar, Addl SP Rahul Maknikar, the arrest was made by PI LCB Omprakash Kokate, API Rajiv Karmalwar and staff including Gajendra Choudhary, Dinesh Adhapure, Rajendra Rewatkar, Rohan Dhakore,Vipin Gaidhane, Amol Wagh, Shailesh Yadav, Satish Ratho, Amol Kuthe and others.
The gang used Facebook messenger to hoodwink police:
The criminals were using Facebook messenger for interaction to spawn hurdles for the police. It was a difficult task for the police to track down the accused on the basis of their phone calls. They were totally dependent on the Facebook messenger application for interaction with each and even family members, said police.
