Five members of the gang are still at large, police said.
Bengaluru Police on Friday arrested five members of the Bheel gang of Madhya Pradesh, including the gang leader, Rai Singh Bheel following a brief encounter. The arrests come days after a police team was attacked by four gang members.
The police team was led to the hideout in Kodigahalli by "the gang leader Rai Singh Bheel, who was arrested from the Bhagoli village in Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh," said Bengaluru Commissioner of Police T Sunil Kumar.
A police team was attacked with a sharp weapon by four gang members in the early hours on January 18 in Kodigahalli in the north east divison of Bengaluru when the gang members also snatched a 303 bore rifle from the team.
The night patrol team of the Kodigahalli Police Station had got a lead that four persons were moving with sharp weapon around 2 am on January 18.
Taking advantage of the darkness, the gang members attacked the police team with stones and took away one of the rifles when police constables fell down, police said, citing the CCTV footage.
Four teams were formed afterwards to nab these criminals. Two locals - Hammed and Afroz - both in their late twenties, were said to have been seen with the miscreants who had taken away the police rifle, according to police.
Later, the police was told that the four suspects who attacked the police team were from Bhagoli village in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
A Karnataka Police team with the help of the Madhya Pradesh police reached the tribal village where Bengaluru police offers were "attacked by the villagers " said T Sunil Kumar.
Following a brief encounter, the gang leader and four of his accomplices were arrested. Amid the police firing, three gang members - Azam Bhai Singh, Chetan Ram Singh and Suresh Godriya - were shot on knees and they sustained injuries. The fifth gang member arrested has been identified as Abu Bhai Singh. The police also recovered the 303 bore rifle snatched earlier.
The 10-member Bheel gang, led by Rai Singh Bheel, was equally divided into two sub gangs. After committing crime, five members of the gang would return from Bangalore to Madhya Pradesh and the remaining five would then to Bangalore to replace them.
Police suspect that this gang is involved in more than 100 cases of theft and robbery in Karnataka Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The gang members would identify their target during day time, and while committing the crime at night, they would lock neighbouring houses from outside so that nobody could come out in case of suspicion.
Police said five gang members were still at large and a team of Bangalore Police is in Madhya Pradesh on a lookout.