Lucknow: In UP’s Banda, cops caught pickpockets who often rode SUVs and targeted people typically found in crowds.
Cops recovered cell phones and wallets from five young men – Aman Sharma, Noor Hasan and Mohammed Aftab from Ghaziabad, Jawed from New Delhi and Babloo Pal from Badaun – who tracked, riding two SUVs, big political rallies and gatherings fronted by A-list politicians.
Banda’s SUV-riding pickpockets, in police custody, are being interrogated, circle officer (city) DySP Gavendra Pal Gautam said. The five young men’s business venture ended abruptly when they were trawling for victims among those marching with the Lok Jagran Yatra of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Some SP cadres, cops said, got suspicious of the men, and caught one of them as he stole a cell phone. Cops found the cell phone in a pocket sewn at the bottom of the pickpocket’s trousers. As the bottom fell out of his pickpocketing career, the apprehended man told the cops who his fellow travellers were.
Till then, the gang was riding high – in fact, their SUVs had tagged along with Yadav’s convoy as the latter headed towards Banda’s Circuit House. Along the way, as the yatra progressed, the men had pocketed more than a few valuables.
Handed over to the police, the men confessed that they preferred political events because most attendees are strangers to each other, and a good crowd is guaranteed if the neta is a big shot. Also, marches presented more options, in the moving crowd and among locals, who gathered when the procession took pitstops.
Unsurprisingly, the SUV-riding pickpockets were not picky about the politics of the events they targeted. They would chant zindabad for any leader from any party, so long as he or she drew a large crowd, cops said.
