Mumbai, July 19: A special team of Government Railway Police (GRP) busted a gang that goes by the name ‘Jadugar’ and arrested two members of it including kingpin. The gang is called 'Jadugar' because its members are known to vanish an individual’s bag in the blink of an eye. The gang, known for using secret codes for communication, is involved in 20 offences in Mumbai so far.

The police managed to catch the gang members while probing in connection with a Rs 4.5 lakh theft. Shaikh and his accomplices theft a bag containing Rs 4.5 lakh from a broker, Chetan Doshi, when he was crossing a foot overbridge at Masjid station. During interrogation, Shaikh revealed how they would spot a target, communicate in code language and carry out robberies in broad daylight.

Rafiq, one of the gang members, was tasked with scouting for victims. On April 10, he had noticed Doshi carrying a white plastic bag as he entered Goregaon station. He then had alerted Shaikh and said: “dhoor jaa raha hai” (this man is our target), adding that Doshi was carrying “nanga patta” (cash), reported Times of India.

The gang started following Doshi as he boarded the first-class compartment of a CST-bound local train. Shaikh and his aides boarded the adjacent compartment. When Doshi alighted at Masjid station, four more gang members - Rafiq, Bunty Dulgaj, Vinayak and Bullet - had surrounded him at foot overbridge.

Shaikh snatched Doshi’s bag and passed it to Vinayak, who was tasked to carry an empty sack with him. While Vinayak immediately pushed Doshi's bag into his sack, other gang members misguided him by screaming that they had seen a man run in the other direction. After Doshi filed a complaint with CST GRP, cops began to probe and identified the robbers with the help of CCTV cameras.

The police recently received a tip-off that the gang had gone to the Ajmer dargah. They checked 200 to 250 lodges in Ajmer and later found that the group had left for New Delhi. "On receiving another tipoff that the gang was to arrive at Hari Masjid, we laid a trap and nabbed Shaikh. The others fled," senior inspector Santosh Dhanvate, GRP crime branch, was quoted as saying.

On the basis of information provided by Shaikh, cops arrested Dulgaj from Thane district. The police have recovered Rs 1.2 lakh from them.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 19, 2018 05:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).