M’luru CCB Police arrest nine members of ‘Saheb Ganj’ gang for attempting jewellery shop heist
Accused arrived in Mangaluru 15 days ago via train to carry out theft
Mangaluru: The Mangaluru CCB police on Wednesday arrested nine members of a notorious interstate jewellery and bank robbers’ gang who were plotting to rob a jewellery store, in the jurisdiction of the Ullal police station, by boring into the wall of the store.
The police have also seized various items collected by the gang to carry out the robbery.
The Mangaluru CCB police received a verified tip-off that, on the night of November 29-30, several members of the notorious North Indian ‘Saheb Ganj’ gang of robbers were at a house in Manchila, Thokottu, and were plotting to rob a jewellery store in Thokottu by piercing the store’s wall, said sources.
CCB Police Inspector Mahesh Prasad led the operation team that successfully thwarted a full-fledged robbery attempt and arrested nine people. A native of Kanyana in Bantwal Taluk residing in Gujarat, Bhaskar Belchada (65), native of Nepal presently living in Gujarat, Dinesh Rawal aka Sagar aka Dilli (38), Jharkhand’s Muhammed Jameel Sheikh (29) and Inzamam ul Haq (27), Nepal resident Bistha Roop Singh (24), Krishna Bahadur Bogata (41), Jharkhand’s Imdadul Razzaq Sheikh (32), Bivul Sheikh (31), and Imran Sheikh (30) were held by the investigation team.
As per the police, the accused had laid out an elaborate plan to rob the Super Jewellery store in Thokottu and arrived in Mangaluru 15 days ago via the train. They had been staying at a Thokottu lodge and also rented a house near Manchila, where they were formulating a plan to carry out the robbery.
After finding the ‘Super Gold & Diamond Jewellery’ store as their next target, the accused men collected the required equipment and tools to carry out their robbery plan. Such items, including the gas cutter, oxygen cylinder, gas cylinder, gas cutting nozzle, cutting hose pipe, leather hand-gloves, iron rods, sword, Oxo-blade, hammer, screwdrivers, chilli powder, nylon rope and various other objects meant for robbery were seized by the police. The total value of the seized items is estimated to be Rs. 2.9 lakh, it is learned.
A case has been registered in this regard at the Ullal Police Station.
The arrested members of the gang had recently waylaid three two-wheelers at three different locations first in Natekal under the jurisdiction of the Konaje police, then on Ambika Road at the jurisdiction of the Ullal Police Station and lastly near Uchchila. The accused had stopped the scooters in question and abused their riders in Hindi, before assaulting them with iron rods and snatching their vehicles.
The Saheb Ganj gang members had been using such vehicles, by forcibly acquiring them from their owners after assaulting and extorting them, to travel locally as they went about plotting the scheme to rob the jewellery store. The scooters displayed with the report were also seized by the police from the arrested men, along with other items.
Among the arrested, Bhaskar Belchada, Dinesh Rawal, Inzamam ul Haq, Bistha Roop Singh, and Krishna Bahadur Bogata have prior cases related to bank robbery and jewellery store heists registered against them, across various police stations in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Madhav Nagar in Madhya Pradesh, Thrissur in Kerala, and in Punjab.
CCB Unit’s Police Inspector Mahesh Prasad, SI Rajendra B, Pradeep T R, ASIs Shashidhar Shetty, Mohan K V, Hareesha P, and the CCB staff were a part of this operation that located and arrested the members of the Saheb Ganj gang.
Saheb Ganj Gang
The Saheb Ganj Gang is North India’s infamous gang of robbers, originating in Jharkhand. This gang also comprises members belonging to the Nepali nationality and is notorious for targeting banks and jewellery shops in big cities.
The modus operandi of the gang is to identify the place of a heist and find a temporary residence locally in either a lodge or by renting a house. It is here that the members gather and lay out plans for the robbery, and collect all the equipment and objects required for their criminal handiwork of penetrating the walls of the targeted establishments.
After breaching the walls, the gang uses glass cutters to break into the lockers and steal assets worth crores of rupees.
The members of this gang are known to have been involved in various robberies across the country in several places. As there are many Nepali nationals in this gang, after a successful robbery, they are known to flee with the stolen asset to Nepal.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
