Hyderabad: A notorious woman thief involved in stealing gold and silver articles from children has been arrested by the Saroornagar police.

The woman has earlier been involved in 44 such offences, while her brother who has been involved in 11 cases, is yet to be nabbed. Police recovered 25 gm gold, 160 gm silver articles and cash all worth Rs 1 lakh from the accused Md Mehrunnisa, while her mother and brother are absconding.





Following a series of incidents of attention diversion and missing gold ornaments from children, the Rachakonda police formed a special team to keep a close tab on the movement of the suspects near temples and crowded places at Saroornagar and Chaitanyapuri, and nabbed a woman, Meharunnisa, 37, who was involved in seven such offences.

“Meharunnisa her mother Rasheeda Begum, 70, and her younger brother Syed Mahammed, 25, move about in crowded spaces to identify children wearing gold and silver jewellery. They then divert the attention of their parents or attendants, take the children to a distance, and steals the jewellery worn by them,” said Rachakonda police.

In a recent incident, they stole 2 gm gold ear tops and four tola silver anklets from a six-year-old girl who was on her way home from school. The girl lived in the neighbourhood and was walking alone.

“The accused are all into theft cases. Mehrunnisa has been arrested thrice earlier for her offences since 2012. Her brother was arrested in May this year and was released in September. But he again committed six offences in Saroornagar,” said LB Nagar ACP K. Pruthvidhar Rao.

The team recovered the booty from Meharunnisa and produced her in court, while efforts are on to nab her mother and brother, the ACP said.