A group of seven minors apprehended by the Bengaluru police, along with an adult handler, for stealing 29 mobile phones in the city, including several at the inaugural IPL 2026 match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 28, were part of a ‘Sahibganj’ gang involved in phone thefts at crowded places around India, a police probe has revealed.
According to police sources, the minors, who hail from the Tinpahar region of Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district, were paid Rs 5,000 each to steal phones at crowded locations. The gang operators also covered their travel, food, and accommodation.
“This is like a Jamtara gang (which is linked to cyber crimes) involved in stealing phones but operating from the Sahibganj area of Jharkhand. We cannot rule out the possibility of stolen phones being used for cyber crimes,” a Karnataka Police officer said.
Investigators said the “Sahibganj gang” has been active since around 2012, with multiple reports of phone thefts at large events across the country.
Sources added that members of the same network had struck a year earlier, stealing 38 mobile phones on March 28, 2025, in and around Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium during an IPL match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings.
“The same gang involved in the recent mobile phone thefts in Bengaluru during the inaugural IPL match is suspected to have struck at the IPL season last year in Chennai. The gang members on the field may have been different, but they have the same origins,” said a Karnataka Police source familiar with the investigations in Bengaluru and Chennai.
“We have sent a police team to Chennai to collect details of the gang from the 2025 probe,” the source added.
‘Mukhiya’ led Bengaluru operation
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The Bengaluru police investigation into the mobile thefts during the March 28 IPL match revealed that a handler brought the minors to the city for the local operation.
The alleged “mukhiya” has been identified as Shubham Kumar, 26, also from Sahibganj. He was arrested based on information provided by the minors, who were first apprehended on the night of March 28 following multiple theft complaints at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“He coordinated and directed the movement of the minors brought to Bengaluru for the thefts,” a police source said.
“The minors were brought to Bengaluru through different modes. Some legs of the journey from Jharkhand to Bengaluru were by flight from Patna and other stretches were by road or train. The entire funding was under the gang’s care. They were warned of punishments if they did not meet a minimum target of five phones during the theft operation. It is an organised crime,” the source added.
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While the gang is reported to have bought IPL tickets on the black market to commit thefts during the 2025 IPL season, they allegedly pickpocketed “complimentary” tickets for some of the premier spectator stands at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the police said. Of the 29 phones recovered by the Bengaluru police, 14 were iPhones.
“They did not just operate at the stadium. They operated around the stadium, at the crowded metro station, and in the surrounding areas to steal tickets and phones,” the source said.
Links to IPL 2025 thefts
The police suspect the same network was behind a series of thefts during IPL 2025. The “Sahibganj gang” allegedly stole 74 mobile phones during matches in Bengaluru (March 22) and Chennai (March 28).
In Chennai, the police acted on as many as 20 complaints received of mobile phone thefts at the Chepauk Stadium during the IPL match and tracked suspects to hotels in Vellore using CCTV footage two days after the robberies. They arrested four adults and apprehended four minors.
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Later, the probe in Chennai also led to the arrests of four more people and the recovery of more phones.
The gang, which hailed from Sahibganj, entered the Chepauk stadium using black-market tickets, the Chennai police said last year.
The Chennai police also said the gang had struck at the Chinnaswamy Stadium earlier that season, though those incidents were not widely reported.
Those arrested from the “Sahibganj gang” for the mobile thefts in Chennai were Rajkumar Noniya, 25, Akash Noniya, 24, Vishal Kumar Mahto, 24, Gobind Kumar Noniya, 23, Sonu Kumar Chauhan, 19, Dev Kumar Noniya, 20, and Bittu Kumar Singh, 18.
Legal proceedings and ongoing probe
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In 2025, the Chennai police registered a First Information Report (FIR) at the Triplicane Police Station regarding phone thefts at the Chepauk Stadium and surrounding areas. After the arrests of the “Sahibganj gang” and recovery of phones, a magistrate’s court facilitated the return of several devices to victims.
However, on June 4, 2025, a metropolitan magistrate granted default bail to the accused after the police failed to file a chargesheet within 60 days. The case is currently awaiting trial, and the accused have not appeared in court despite summons issued on February 19 and March 23, 2026.
One of the accused in the Chennai case, Rajkumar Noniya, was arrested again in September 2025, along with Suraj Kumar Noniya, 35, and a 17-year-old, for allegedly carrying out thefts at a fish market at Marina Beach.
The Chennai police described the gang as nomadic, moving from city to city and typically staying in one place for about a week. During IPL 2025, members reportedly stayed in lodges in Vellore while carrying out thefts in Bengaluru and Chennai.
