Gang studied jewellery shops in Coimbatore

MADURAI: Members of an inter-State gang involved in a burglary at Alukkas Jewellery showroom in Tirupur last month had allegedly camped in Coimbatore for nearly a week surveying security loopholes in jewel shops in the city and neighbouring districts. Based on initial confession of three members of the ga-ng, who were arrested from West Bengal, a senior police officer said that the accused had stayed in a hotel at Coi-mbatore for a week during which they frequented many jewellery shops in the city and neighbouring Tirupur district and surveyed the security arrangements. “They decided to strike at the Alukkas showroom after finding that no burglar alarm was installed there. Also, the shop staff switched off the CCTV at night,” the officer told Express. The gang leader Zialul Sh-eikh (25) from Jharkhand and the other two accused, who have been arrested, Hakeem Ullah Sheikh and Meraj Ali,  belonged to Murushidabad in West Bengal. “They removed the grill in the showroom using a gas cylinder,” he said. A hunt is on for three other suspects. After decamping with the jewels, the gang had left for Salem to divert the attention of the police and from there they escaped by a train. “A police team, headed by the Dharmapuri SP Amit Kumar Singh, is camping in the border areas of Bangladesh to nab them. Another team, led by Coimbatore Range DIG H M Jayaram and Tirupur Superintendent of Police Balakrishnan, had visited Jharkhand to find the involvement of the gang members in other burglaries in jewellery shops,” the officer said. The same gang had allegedly looted a jewellery shop each in Vellore and Tiruchy districts. “Members of this gang usually pose as workers and survey their targets. Once they have zeroed in on a shop, they would alert other accomplices,” a source said. Since some of the gang members are residents of villages bordering Bangladesh, a special team is investigating if they are linked to racketeers, who circulated counterfeit Indian currency. When contacted, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) S George told Express that he has instructed officers to study the antecedents of the gang members and create awareness among the public about them so that the latter could alert the police if they found something amiss in their neighbourhood.