The police have come across different types of attention diversion gangs such as the Kapparalla Tippa gang and the Cape Maris gang, but one gang stands out and its operations still continue to baffle the crime wing of the police.
It is the Ramji Nagar gang. The gang members are based at Ramji Nagar in Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu and they operate across almost all the southern and central States of the country.
Ramji Nagar is a town founded by a businessman from Gujarat by name Ramji Mooljee who set up a cotton spinning mill decades ago.
He employed labourers from various communities such as Servai and Kallar. And years later, they have become the inhabitants of the colony.
According to Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) S. Varada Raju, it was they (the labourers) who started the gang. They are said to be experts in attention diversion robberies. Today, it is believed that there are about 1,500 families solely living by this profession. The community is well knit and there are a number of gangs and each gang is headed by a leader. The kingpin has a team of about 30 to 50 persons including women and children. A few of the noted among them are Jaypal, Saravanan, Kundan, Chandru Kumar, Kumaran and Narendran. The training begins early for the children and by the time they reach the age of 15 or 16, they become trained offenders.
The gangs are well organised and 3 per cent of the loot is deposited in a committee account for the welfare of the gang members, which includes fighting court cases and applying for bail.
Most of the gang members are well-off and some of the kingpins are said to be millionaires. Kumaran, a senior captain, is believed to live in a bungalow built over 20 acres of land.
The gang members travel in flights and in Ramji Nagar they enjoy a place of pride and respect.
According to Mr. Varada Raju, the gang leaders are well connected with law makers, politicians and big business houses, and they have a well-oiled information network.
“Any talk of a raid, reaches them well in advance, and when the police, including from other States, reach them, nothing is found,” says the police official.
Well-trained
They basically target people at banks, post offices and LIC offices where one goes to withdraw or deposit money.
At times, they pose as bank officials and in the garb of helping an elderly person in getting the money deposited they decamp with it. There were instances in Andhra Pradesh and other States where even the bank teller clerks were fooled.
They also try to divert the attention by dropping a currency note close to the victim’s feet or spray some kind of bad odour on the victim’s clothes. “Once the attention is diverted, the rest is easy for the gang members. Normally, they move in a group of two to four persons and they commit a string of offences within short time and move back to Ramji Nagar,” says the ADCP.
Each of them is trained to know a number of languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Bengali and Marathi and their appearance is deceptive.
There were instances when they even posed as police constables and duped gullible victims.
In Visakhapatnam, it is presumed that they have committed four crimes this year, and in past a number of gang members were caught.
But each time they are caught, the committee at their native town comes to the rescue.
