THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Top police officials have given the clarion call to crosscheck the identity of other state labourers and visitors residing in the city. The instruction in this regard was given after the special police team unearthed the magnitude of the crimes being carried out by other state criminals in the state in the disguise of petty labourers. City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham told City Express that the instructions in this regard had already been given to police officers. “Now activities of inter-state burglary gangs have surfaced quite strongly. In most cases, it is not the petty, day labourers from Bengal or any other states who carry out the crimes. “There are hardcore criminals who visit the state in the guise of labourers. After working for a day or two they return home with a detailed plan in mind. The plan is drawn and then action is carried out. So we have asked officers to collude with the hotel owners and managers to keep a tab on the activities of the visitors from North,” he said. City police have already envisaged local lodge managers to keep the copies of identity cards of the visitors even after they leave the lodge. Police have also started working on preparing a data bank on the migrant labourers.The involvement of inter-state gangs, especially people from North India, in largescale looting and burglary were reported almost five years ago when a couple of Rajasthanis were nabbed by city police for looting a mobile shop. In Ernakulam Chhattisgarh natives were picked up for similar crimes. This had prompted the officials to go beyond the usual frame of investigation centering around Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.Medical College CI A Pramod Kumar, who has been probing the case, said that the Bengalis had been carrying out a lot of thefts in the city. So far, 32 cases of robbery have been solved. The market value of the looted gold ornaments has been estimated at Rs 1 crore. The investigating officers are hopeful of solving more than a dozen other cases by matching the fingerprints of the accused,” he said.Meanwhile, hunt for the other four Bengali residents of the gang would be intensified. Four police teams are already involved in cracking the case. Arrest of the alleged kingpin Bikas, among nine others, had provided vital leads to the probing team.
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