Hyderabad:
Two brothers from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal were arrested in Hyderabad on Monday for their alleged involvement in five bag snatching incidents in Hyderabad, police said.
Mithun Gwala and Manoj Gwala are allegedly involved in over 100 such offences in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Bihar and Delhi, besides Hyderabad, they said.
The duo teamed up with two others and committed many such crimes, police said, adding that they would mainly target customers coming out of banks carrying huge amounts.
The Gwala brothers were picked up from a lodge near Secunderabad railway station and on interrogation they confessed to have committed five snatching offences under the limits of Karkhana and Marredpally police stations in Hyderabad recently, police said.
Rs 73,000 in cash and fake ID cards were recovered from them.
The modus operandi of the accused was to spray chemical powder on their target, which would cause itching.
They would then snatch the bag or valuables of the target. The brothers would also use other tricks to divert the attention of their targets like throwing a few currency notes, according to police.
Sometimes, the duo would dash the target's vehicle with theirs and then snatch bag containing cash, they said.
As per the information, there are about 150 offenders from Janjupara village of Jalpaiguri district, committing such offences all over the country, a release said.