delhi

Updated: May 05, 2019 03:43 IST

Three men from Bangladesh — who allegedly used to take flights to Delhi to commit dacoity in different Indian

states before flying back to evade arrest — Friday landed in Delhi Police’s net.

The stolen valuables and the passports used for the frequent trips have been seized from them, police said.

Police said the three are members of a larger gang that operates in different states of India. Besides the several crimes they have committed in Delhi, police officers maintained, five dacoities reported from Bhubaneshwar in Odisha, Dharwad and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Lucknow and Agra in Uttar Pradesh have been solved with their arrest.

According to police, the three arrested men have been identified as Kamrul Kamaal (42), Sahidul Islam (38) and Nazrul (36) — all of them Bangladesh nationals. Kamaal was lodged in a jail in Delhi between 2003 and 2010, and then, at a jail in Muzaffarnagar between 2011 and June, 2017, police said, adding that Nazrul is involved in at least 21 cases and has been convicted in several of them. Islam, meanwhile, has six cases of robbery, theft and cases under the Arms Act registered against him, police maintained.

G Ram Gopal Naik, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said recently, a number of dacoities were reported from different states. “All of the incidents were reported late in the night by a gang comprising six-eight members. The gang used to cut open window grilles and tie up all members of the targeted houses at gunpoint before fleeing with their valuables. During investigations into the case, it was revealed that a Bangladeshi gang is involved in these cases, and therefore, we put Bangladeshi gangs active in India under surveillance,” Naik said.

Elaborating further, Naik said police managed to zero in on one Kamrul Kamaal, who was suspected to be leading the gang. “Following an input of his presence in Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi, our team swung into action and arrested Kamaal and two of his aides, later identified as Islam and Nazrul. Two countrymade pistols were recovered from their possession,” he said.

During questioning, the trio told police that all of them are Bangladesh nationals. “They said Kamaal and Islam had entered India with passports after procuring a visa while Nazrul had sneaked in through border, illegally. Passports revealed Kamaal visited India eight times since July, 2017, and Islam entered India thrice since. Nazrul said he had gained entry illegally through a broker in Bangladesh after paying R5000,” the DCP said.

Police said the gang targeted houses in posh colonies. “If any member resisted, they did not hesitate to kill them. They mostly stayed near railway stations or in the forested areas of the city. After committing the crime, the gang used to return to Bangladesh. Since the other two used to fly back, Nazrul, who used to sneak in illegally, used to carry the stolen valuables, which the gang later distributed equally,” Naik said.