‘Dhoom’-style burglar who targeted only malls held in Anantapur
The Anantapur police were taken aback when an accused in a series of house burglaries confessed to his crimes, modelled them on the 2004 Bollywood
The Anantapur police were taken aback when an accused in a series of house burglaries confessed to his crimes, modelled them on the 2004 Bollywood film Dhoom, and mainly targeted shopping malls to avoid inflicting losses on ordinary families. The police caught him on Friday (July 10, 2026) after a detailed investigation into a recent burglary. Addressing a press conference here, Additional SP Syed Mahaboob Basha said the accused, Nagaraju, from Bengaluru’s CSR Palya, had allegedly carried out mall break-ins across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the past five years.
The police found that he had avoided residential burglaries, as, according to his confession, he did not want to rob people of their hard-earned savings. The Additional SP said Nagaraju concentrated only on commercial establishments, in a manner the police described as resembling the heists in Dhoom. Basha said the police recovered ₹5.25 lakh in cash, a car allegedly used in the crimes, three interchangeable number plates, iron rods, metal cutters and other burglary tools from the accused.
The police said Nagaraju was wanted in nearly 33 property offences across the three States. His arrest followed the June 27 burglary at a well-known textiles showroom in Anantapur’s Dress Circle locality. The police used technical clues and field intelligence
to crack the case, and the One Town police registered a case. “We are now probing his possible role in several other unsolved burglaries at shopping malls, and the recovery of more stolen property is expected soon,” the Additional SP said.
The BriefWire