They move from one city to another with their families. They live on the fringes in makeshift jhuggis and pose as labourers or beggars to scout potential targets before carrying out robberies — and allegedly committing murder.

This is the modus operandi of the Chaimar gang, said police, an offshoot of the Kachha Baniyan gang. According to police, the gang’s name comes from the Hindi words “chai (six)” and “maar (kill)”. Police claimed that to become its leader, a person has to commit at least six murders.

On October 25, the alleged gang leader, Savan, 53, landed in the Delhi Police net following a shootout while he was scouting farmhouses in South Delhi, officers said. His arrest has brought renewed attention to a gang that police link to a series of robberies and killings in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Robbery that led to the gang’s arrest

Around 1 am on August 28, 2016, a family was asleep inside its shuttered grocery shop-cum-home in Mathura’s Pathak Nagar area.…