The Saifabad Police on Sunday arrested a gang of seven people in Hyderabad for robbing and looting migrant workers. Five mobile phones and two auto-rickshaws were recovered from the arrested accused, one of which is the owner of a private travel agency.
The seven accused have been identified as Mohammed Sohail, Mohd Moin, Syed Nadeem, Shaik Jafar, Sohail Khan, Shaik Mohsin and Mohammed Haji Pasha. According to the reports, Mohd Haji Pasha is the owner of Salam Namaste travel agency and employed Mohammad Sohail as travel agency manager and Sayed Nadeem as the office boy. The four others were auto-rickshaw drivers.
The matter came to light when Mundar, a native of Madhya Pradesh lodged an official complaint at the Saifabad Police Station of being assaulted and robbed. On January 28, Mundar along with other migrant workers boarded a private travels bus from Singrauli to Karimnagar.
On January 30, they erroneously got off the bus at Tank Bund thinking that they had reached the destination. Two of the accused auto-rickshaw drivers then approached them and took them to the Salam Namaste travel office. The workers were assured by the auto drivers that they could get bus tickets to Karimanagar at Salam Namaste office.
DCP (Central) P Vishwa Prasad said that the auto drivers demanded high fares from the workers and robbed them for Rs 5000 and mobile phones after they refused to pay the amount. “The auto drivers and five others assaulted the workers and snatched their phones”, he was quoted.
The Saifabad Police arrested Mohd Haji Pasha, the owner of Salam Namaste travel agency, his employees and the auto drivers after analyzing the CCTV footage. The team has also recovered the stolen property of Rs 5000 and four mobile phones. The accused have been charged under sections 365, 395, 384, 420 r/w 109 of the Indian Penal Code.
