Gurugram, Aug 13 : A crime branch team of the Gurugram Police has arrested five members of the infamous Bawarias -- a tribal community notorious for committing robberies and other criminal activities.

Police said that they received a complaint on June 12 in which the complainant claimed that his house located in DLF Phase-3 was robbed and jewellery and other items were missing.

Based on a complaint, police nabbed four members of the gang, identified as Vinod (31), Babulal alias Sonu (23), Bunty (43) and Mangal (23) on August 9 from Leisure Valley ground Sector-29 while their associate Pannalal (51) a goldsmith was nabbed from Rajasthan on Monday.

During interrogation, the culprits disclosed that Vinod alias Bagaria is the kingpin of the gang. Before committing the burglary, the gang used to identify a city, town or colony.

'They used to live in a slum in an empty place near the city, town or colony identified by them and they used to keep a woman with them to cook food so that on seeing their slum, it appears that a family lives in the slum. The accused used to roam the area during the day on the pretext of asking for food and used to do recce of the houses,' Sandeep Kumar, Incharge Crime Branch DLF Phase-IV said.

'They used to target locked houses and enter those houses during the daytime while their two companions would stay outside the house and keep watch. After stealing, one person used to go to Rajasthan to give the stolen goods to the above-accused Pannalal (goldsmith). They used to leave that place and identify some other place and set up their camp there,' he said.

He said that the gang used to change cities and used to stay in one place for about 15 to 20 days only.

'The accused have disclosed that they have committed eight incidents of burglary in various police station areas of Gurugram and two other incidents of burglary in Delhi,' he said.

From the perusal of the criminal record of the accused, it was found that more than one dozen cases of burglary and house-breaking have been registered against the accused in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh etc. They have been to jail earlier also and are habitual offenders.

/IANS