A network of surveillance cameras at important junctions in Prakasam district helped police crack a dacoity case within seven hours of its occurrence and arrest five members of the gang based at Stuartpuram in neighouring Guntur district on Thursday.
The gangsters robbed at knife point a journalist from neighbouring Kurnool district of ₹50,000 cash and a mobile phone early on Thursday after taking him to a remote place with a promise to give three times more counterfeit currency for ₹1 lakh, Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal told the media here on Thursday evening.
The SP said initially one of the accused showed two 500 rupee notes said to be counterfeit ones to the scribe, Sampangi Ramesh, who came to the busy Kunta junction along with his friend Nageswara Rao. On getting satisfied as they looked similar to original notes, the duo went with the person towards Dornala in a car and on reaching a remote place, he took him to nearby bushes. Four other accused pounced upon him and snatched away the cash bag brought by the complainant at knife point and all of them sped away in the car.
CCC spots car
Following a complaint with the Peddaravidu police, all police stations in the vicinity, including Markapur, Tripurantakam, Dornala, Yerragondapalem and T.V. Palli were alerted and checking of vehicles was started at all check-posts under the supervision of the command control centre (CCC) here. The CCC identified the gangsters’ car moving swiftly near the Bodireddypalli junction thanks to CCTV surveillance, the SP said.
A police party from Podili rushed to the junction, intercepted the car and nabbed the five accused at about 2.00 p.m. besides recovering the cash and mobile phone.
The accused, G. William (39), K. Ramesh (55), D. Syam (32), S. Kishore(35) from Stuartpuram and M. Suresh(36), the car driver from Ongole, were produced in a court at Markapur which remanded them in judical custody.
