South 24 Parganas SP Praveen Kumar said Sunday’s arrests had led them to a cache of booty estimated at around Rs 35 lakh. “We recovered Rs 16.5 lakh in cash, 1.6 kg of gold ornaments and 1.4 kg of silverware and jewellery from the four persons arrested in connection with robberies in the district. The cash is in denominations of Rs 1000, 500 and 100 notes. However, the eunuchs are still absconding.”
For the last one year, the gang had been operating in the Jadavpur, Behala and Bishnupur areas of the district on the fringes of Kolkata, committing major and minor robberies at residences where families had either gone on vacation or were at work. The modus operandi was simple. The eunuchs, identified as Kabootari and Poppy, would visit these houses to ask for money and take stock of the valuables.
After staking out the residences based on their tip-offs, the robbers would wait for an opportune moment before striking.
To trace the gang, a special police team headed by Kumar was formed, which eventually led to the arrests on Sunday. “Both eunuchs would get their share of the spoils. We are on the lookout for them,” Kumar said.
Only 10 days back, police had cracked a major burglary case in the up market New Alipore area of the city, which was committed by a gang of five women posing as eunuchs and masterminded by a 21-year-old eunuch named Hogla. While some members of the gang would perform, the others would make use of the diversion and burgle the house.
While six persons including Hogla were arrested on April 10, their interrogation led to the arrests of three more women gang members from Orissa. Senior police officers had then said that they suspect Hogla’s gang to have committed several more burglaries using the same modus operandi.