Four, including receiver, held for nine house break-ins in Chengicherla

Four men accused of breaking into a string of locked homes in Chengicherla were arrested along with a receiver of stolen property following a multi-State operation by Medipally police and the Commissioner’s Task Force.

The accused, identified as Mahadev Jha and Pawan Gupta alias Pawan Kumar of Delhi, and Mangal Singh of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, were taken into custody along with Beerendra of Bihar, who police said acted as a receiver of the stolen goods. The arrests were made after teams tracked the suspects across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and secured transit warrants to bring them to Hyderabad.

Investigations revealed that the trio was behind four cases of night-time house break-ins in Kanaka Durga Colony, Chengicherla, where locked homes were targeted while residents were away. On the intervening night of January 15 and 16, the group forced entry into nine houses and escaped with cash, gold and silver ornaments, and other valuables following which four cases were subsequently registered by the Medipally police.

Following the spate of burglaries, special teams from the Central Crime Station, Uppal, and Medipally police launched an intensive investigation. By analysing CCTV footage, technical data and gathering local intelligence, officers traced the suspects’ movements outside the State.

Police recovered four mobile phones from the accused and seized cash amounting to ₹2.04 lakh believed to be part of the stolen proceeds.

Police said that the three primary accused were also wanted in multiple pending theft and house-breaking cases in Warangal and Nalgonda districts. Police records further show that the accused have a long criminal history in Delhi dating back nearly two decades, including previous cases of house-breaking and theft. Mahadev Jha was also convicted in an earlier criminal case in West Delhi.

Further investigation is under way.