Visakhapatnam rural police have arrested seven members of an inter-state gang of dacoits and seized Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, two toy guns and two cars from them.
The arrested accused were identified as T Nagaraju alias Srikanth Raju (40), Ch Naresh (27), A Mallesh (32), N Mahesh (32), P Simhadri (25) (all natives of Nalgonda district of Telangana), P Srinivasa (40) of Warangal and K Sanyasi Naidu (42) of Kasimkota. K Upendra, another gang member, was abconding.
The gang was reportedly led by Srikanth Raju, a former convict, police said.
Yesterday morning, four of them led by Srikanthraju drove to Navodays Granite Industry at Mamidipalem Junction in the district in a car, and looted Rs 50,000 from the owner K Vijaya Prasad by posing as Maoists and threatening him with toy guns.
The police caught them at Atcherla Junction yesterday afternoon and recovered the stolen booty. Additional Superintendent of Police NG Raj Kumar said following their questioning, police arrested three others.
The gang had committed a total of 19 such offences in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They had looted Rs 2.6 lakh from a weighbridge office on August 24 at Kannurupalem area near Kasimkota in the district posing as policemen.
Srikanth Raju had been sentenced to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case in Hyderabad in 2010. He absconded while on parole and formed this gang.
