Four members of armed gang held for dacoity bid at firm

The Cyberabad Police today arrested four members of a gang which had made an unsuccessful attempt to commit an armed dacoity at the office of a gold finance firm at Mailardevpally here earlier this month.
Police had launched a massive manhunt in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat to trace the members of the gang by forming 12 special teams.
The arrested persons are identified as Arshad Fulumuddin Khan, Shafiuddin Navaboddin Sayyad, Mohammed Dastagir, and Santosh Veerkar.
According to a senior officer, two members of the gang entered the private firm's branch on July 4 under the pretext of mortgaging a gold ring and were joined shortly by two others wielding pistols.

"All the four members threatened the staff with weapons, but the alert staff foiled the dacoity by screaming and switching on the burglary alarm, forcing the armed men to flee in a four-wheeler," Joint Commissioner of Police Shahnawaz Qasim said.
Based on the complaint lodged by the branch manager, police launched the manhunt in the three states.

Police, continuously monitoring the movements of the accused, nabbed Shafiuddin and Mohammed Dastagir in the early hours today from the latter's residence in Chandrayangutta here. Dastagir had provided the shelter to other accused and helped them in escaping.
"Based on the confession of Shafiuddin, Arshad Khan was nabbed along with Santosh Veerkar from Osmanabad in Maharashtra. Veerkar was the driver of the stolen four-wheeler used by the accused in the crime," Qasim said.

Hunt is on to nab prime accused Shareef and two other members of the gang who were allegedly involved in crimes like robbery, police added.