Highly skilled international robbers' gang from Columbia burgled 31 houses in Bengaluru: Police
Bengaluru: A notorious international gang of robbers from Columbia allegedly burgled 31 houses, including that of former Karnataka chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, here over the past few years, police said on Thursday.
Interrogation of three members of the gang, arrested in March this year, brought to light their involvement in 31 burglaries, they said.
The arrested have been identified as Willian Padilla Martinez (48), Liedy Stefania Munoz Monsalve (23) and Christian Yeinis Navarro Olarte (34).
Their mastermind Gustavo was at large, police said.
"Gold worth Rs 2.58 crore, nine mm browning pistol and 23 live bullets, two motorcycles were recovered from their possession. On interrogation, they confessed that they burgled 31 houses and wanted to carry out a bank heist," a police release said.
The police were on the lookout for the trio when they tried to loot a house in October 2019. The gang members had entered the house by breaking the grill but when the police came there on getting information, they scaled the 15 feet high wall using the 'Parkour' technique.
This gave the police a clue about the involvement of Gustavo, who had burgled the house of Mukherjee in 2018 using the same method.
Subsequently, a team was constituted, which nabbed the gang members in March last near a petrol pump here.
During interrogation, the gang members revealed they had come to India via Nepal on a tourist visa and stayed in the service apartments in prime locations, police said, adding they would survey their target houses and plan the burglaries.
They had a mobile jammer, pepper spray, knife, drill bit machine of Bosch company, laser cutting machine, hardware tools, axle blade, ring spanner rods, cutting plier, flame gun, iron solder, and head torch.
"Their equipment is different and shocking because never in the past any thief has used them," police said.
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Chennai hospital airlifts heart from Thanjavur by helicopter
Chennai (PTI): A Chennai-based hospital on Friday successfully airlifted a heart from Thanjavur by helicopter, saving the life of a 33-year-old cardiac patient from Maharashtra.
The heart was retrieved from a 19-year-old donor who sustained a traumatic brain injury in a road accident and was declared brain-dead on December 26, said a press release issued by Chennai-based MGM Healthcare.
The hospital claimed that this was the first time a chopper had landed within city limits for an organ transplant operation.
The donor's family consented to organ donation, following which the heart and small intestine were retrieved from Thanjavur government hospital.
The heart and lung transplant team transported the organ by special chopper from Thanjavur to D G Vaishnav College here, from where it reached MGM Healthcare in just two minutes with a green corridor facilitated by Chennai police, said the press release.
The transplant procedure was performed by a team headed by Dr K R Balakrishnan, Director of the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support at MGM Healthcare.
"This remarkable achievement stands as a testament to the dedication of healthcare professionals and the collaborative spirit of communities working together to save lives," the statement from MGM Healthcare said.
