KANCHEEPURAM: A group of five men who targeted people living in deserted areas and specialised in break-ins, have been rounded up by the Kancheepuram police. Goods ranging from cars to vacuum-cleaners worth more than Rs 15 lakh have been confiscated from them. Rs 60,000 in cash was also recovered, SP Manoharan told Express on Sunday.The brain behind these operations is Sadiq Batcha (46) from Thirukazhukuntram, and his accomplices, Murugan (26), from Chinna Colony, Madurantakam, Sekhar (24), from Annathur Colony, Uthiramerur Taluk, Ashok (22), from Madurantakam, and Sasikumar (40), from Vettavalam Road in Thiruvannamalai district.Police said Batcha entered the crime world at the age of nine, and though more than 200 cases ranging from mugging to theft are registered against him in various police stations, he consistently gave police the slip.Sadiq’s modus operandi was to steal a couple of cars in one district and then use them as conduit to sell other consumer items in the next district. Sadiq had also been jailed a couple of times.Their criminal activities included looting cooperative banks and looting houses whose owners might have gone out holidays.Last week, Rs 1.8 lakh in cash was looted from a TASMAC outlet in Madurantakam. The police got a tip-off that it was the handiwork of a person who had recently been let out of jail and the lever of suspicion pointed to Sadiq Batcha who was arrested from his known hideout. The investigating team comprising Deputy Superintendent of Police Thanigaivel (Madurantakam), Inspector Sekhar and others kept his arrest under wraps and the other unsuspecting four were taken into custody by midnight on Saturday. The items seized from them included two cars, five silk saris, a diamond nose stud, flat TVs and Home Theatre Systems.SP Manoharan said it was just one part of the operation and that the police have also taken into custody a number of suspects.
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