The sensational NH-44 dacoity case was detected within a week by the Wanaparthy police with the arrest of four gang members while two others are absconding

Wanaparthy: Four days after the sensational dacoity on on National Highway 44 near Pebbair, the Wanaparthy police managed to identity the dacoits and nabbed four members of the ‘pardi gang’ and recovered the looted gold ornaments.

The dacoity was reported on December 18 on National Highway – 44 connecting Bengaluru with Hyderabad, when a group of pilgrims returning from Tirumala stopped their car on the highway near a resting point. The car occupants were asleep, when the dacoit gang struck.

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Initially, they took away the luggage which was tied on top of the car and carried the suitcases to nearby fields, but they did not find any valuables in the luggage. The dacoits then returned to the car to find the occupants still asleep.

Using boulders, they smashed the windscreens and side window and assaulted the inmates, G Rajini, B Praveen, Santosh, Putta Srikanth and five others and looted their gold ornaments and other valuables. When the car driver attempted to chase them, they attacked him against and fled from the spot. This dacoity took place around 2.50 a.m on December 18 on the National Highway.

The busting of the dacoit gang was announced by IG G Satyanarayana along with the district SP R Giridhar in a press conference on Sunday.

Interestingly, the dacoity took place on the busy NH-44 even as vehicles were whizzing past. The offenders, two of them driving two sugarcane-laden tractors parked them in the lay-by road and were waiting for their prospective victims. However, they could not strike two other cars as there were male passengers who were awake.

To their ill-luck, the victims’ car, an Ertiga regurning from Tirumala and Arunachalam and on its way to Jagitial, had stopped in the lay-by with the belief that the parked sugarcane-lade tractors could provide their some safety. The car passengers eased themselves outside and later slept in the car.

Initially, the two tractor drivers and their associates, who were waiting in the nearby fields stole the suitcases tied on roof of the Ertiga but could not find any valuables. They returned to find the occupants still asleep and attacked the car with granite stones found nearby.

They mercilessly assaulted the male members of the car and snatched all gold ornaments before fleeing from the place, Interestingly, the two tractor drivers, who were part of the gang, had returned to their vehicles innocuously and drove away.

When the case was reported, the Wanaparthy police were baffled as to the method in which the dacoity was conducted and focussed on the tractors that were parked in the lay-by road. With meticulous planning they tracked the offenders and arrested four of them, Badri Gajanan Pimpale of Tembhapuri, Sriram Shivaji Shinde of Parli, Sachin Santosh Shinde of Beed and Sayyad Feroj Mahetab of Beed in Maharashtra.

Two of their associates Santosh Panduran Kale and Sanjay Powar are still absconding.