Express News Service
PATNA: Senior police officials from 15 states have made formal inquiries while making visits to Ghorasahan in Bihar’s East Champaran district, with the common objective of nabbing members of the ‘shutter katwa’ (shutter cutter) gang.
An organised ring, they target big shops dealing in high-value electronic gadgets such as mobile phones and laptops.
Investigations into hundreds of cases registered in police stations across the country in Delhi, Uttarkhand, Rajasthan and Karnataka, among others, have taken officers to the gang’s hideout in Ghorasahan town.Interestingly, families of the gang members don’t consider theft from big shops a crime.
According to a Ghorasahan resident, “They regard the work they do with high esteem as it fetches money to change their fortunes. The gang members also borrow money from fellow villagers as a good luck charm before setting out on their missions of infamy.”
Kumar Ashish, SP, East Champaran, said police teams from Odisha had met him as recent as January 21 and sought to arrest those involved in theft of phones worth Rs 50 lakh from Odisha’s Balangir.
Three from the gang were nabbed in the following probe. The special team recovered stolen mobile phones worth Rs 30 lakh from their hideouts.
Two were arrested from Ghorasahan for their involvement in theft of mobile phones worth Rs 10 lakh from a shop in MP’s Chhindwara district on January 5.
Last year, a Rajasthan police team had nabbed three members and recovered expensive phones worth Rs 50 lakh.
An IPS officer, who earlier served as SP of East Champaran said, the ‘shutter katwa’ gang has around 250 members from Ghorasahan and its adjoning villages and 15 groups in different states.
At least 100 members of the gang have been arrested from other states in the last five years.
