Anantapur: Three interstate thieves arrested

Anantapur: The CCS and Anantapur rural police teams jointly arrested three inter-state offenders, who were stealing gold and silver ornaments in AP and Karnataka States. They recovered 310 gm gold ornaments worth Rs 22 lakh and one car from them.

The arrested were identified as Sheikh Khaja Peera alias Khaja (30), Mahesh (30) and Jameer (36) and all the three belong to Dharmavaram town, Sri Satya Sai district.

SP P Jagadeesh held a press meet here on Tuesday and disclosed the details. According to him, Sheikh Khaza Peera is the key accused and other two are his followers.

Khaja is a painter by profession and has two wives and seven children. Unable to support his family with the income, he started house thefts to earn extra money from 2021.

He targets locked houses and rob them. So far, he committed 14 thefts in AP including Anantapur district, 4 in Bagepalli in Karnataka, 5 in Kolar district and 4 in Shamshabad in Telangana. He was imprisoned for these cases and released in March this year. Mahesh and Jameer were convicted of 14 crimes including 10 thefts in Anantapur rural, Yadiki, Itikalapalli police stations and one theft in Kolar, Karnataka.

The trio will rent a car and search for locked houses. Then Khaja alone will enter the house and steals jewels.

Following the orders of SP Jagadeesh, special teams under the supervision of Anantapur CCS Inspector Ismail and rural Inspector N Sekhar, SI KRambabu conducted surveillance to keep an eye on thieves, who rob locked houses. The special teams arrested the trio near Razak Function Hall on Kalyanadurg road.