Four persons have been arrested on charges of stealing 90 smartphones, worth around Rs 10 lakh from a mobile retail store in north Kolkata.
Police said the burglary of mobile phones was reported last Monday on Diwali at Shyampukur police station, with the shop owner complaining that around 90 sets, accessories and one laptop that was kept for official use, had been stolen from the store, located on APC Road at Fariapukur crossing.
The police said the men, arrested on Sunday, were also suspected of having carried out multiple burglaries in shops, including a meat shop in north Kolkata.
Officers attached to the probe said as there were no CCTV cameras in the vicinity, initially the cops found it challenging to proceed. The case was taken over by the detective department.
“As there were no CCTV cameras, we started activating all our human resources searching for information if mobile phones were being sold. We received information that a person named Mohammad Mustafa was trying to sell brand new mobile phones with boxes at Mullickpur in Baruipur,” said an officer in Lalbazar.
The police zeroed in on Mustafa and based on his statement could arrest three others from various parts of the city.
“Majority of the stolen mobile phones were recovered from the house of one of the accused persons Mohammad Subhan. Out of the 90 mobile phone sets, we have been able to recover 75,” the officer said.
The names of two other accused are Mohammad Iqbal and Mohammad Sonu.
During the investigation, the police found links between the accused team and at least a few more burglaries reported in the city in the last few days.
“We are suspecting from their modus operandi that the same gang had carried out a few more robberies in different shops when they were closed. One such case where we suspect their involvement is a meat shop in the Amherst Street area,” said an officer.
An officer said none of the four had been found to be involved in any criminal case in past.
“As a part of their modus operandi, they go to the spot in motorcycles, break into their targeted shops by breaking the shutter in a peculiar way,” the officer said.
All four are, at present, in police custody.