Panaji, Nov 15 (IANS): Goa Police on Wednesday arrested two members of a gang, including a professional snooker player-who represented Goa in national games, for allegedly being involved in breaking burglaries, police officer said.

Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Nidhin Valsan addressing a press conference said that addiction to casino playing and living a lavish lifestyle led them to commit such crimes.

The accused persons have been identified as Shabbirsaheb Shadavali (30) native of Karnataka and Suleman Shaikh (30) resident of Vasco, Goa.

“Suleman Shaikh is a professional snooker player. He represented Goa in National Games, while accused Shabbirsaheb Shalavadi used to do second hand car dealing business. However, addiction to casino playing and living a lavish lifestyle led them to commit such crimes,” Valsan said.

Valsan said that police have successfully recovered stolen gold weighing 162 grams valued at Rs 8.5 lakh and also traced stolen gold worth Rs 6 lakhs kept as mortgage in gold finance firms.

He said that during the search of residence of accused person Shabbirsahed Shadavali at Fatorda in South Goa seized high end articles used for melting and casting gold and diamond detection kits.

“They were planning to commit at least 10 house breaking thefts. We are investigating if they have any other members in their gang,” police said.

Valsan said that the accused were not using the mobile phones fearing police will track them. “However, we traced them after investigating 50 CCTVs from many areas of state,” he said.

Police said that the accused persons were also involved in bike theft.