Visakhapatnam, July 9, 2013: The city police arrested five members of an inter-district gang and recovered around 500 gm gold, 18 kg silver articles and other stolen property, all valued about Rs.20 lakh, from them.

Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy said that the prime accused Boddapu Babu Rao (27) of Peddapalli village of Elamanchili mandal in the district, was involved in burglaries and also theft of gold and silver articles from temples for the last 10 years. He was wanted in several cases under Anakapalle, Kasimkota and Chodavaram police stations in Visakhapatnam district and Kakinada, Pithapuram and Rajahmundry in East Godavari district.

Babu Rao had developed acquaintance with Setti Appalaraju (33) of Madhurawada, when he was in jail in connection with a murder attempt. After their release, both of them met Yerramsetty Appala Raju (40) and Pilla Prasad (36) and they committed 24 offences at various places in the city. The fifth accused G. Appa Rao helped the accused in the disposal of stolen gold and silver articles.

Mr. Shivadhar Reddy said that except Babu Rao, all the other accused were auto drivers. Besides the stolen gold ornaments weighing around 0.5 kg and the silver articles of 18 kg, some old coins, collected by a numismatist.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 9, 2013.