Prakasam police achieved a swift breakthrough in a dacoity case near Gudluru on the Chennai-Kolkata highway with the arrest of seven members of a gang on Monday. Police recovered ₹47 lakh in cash from the accused.
Superintendent of Police Malika Garg told reporters here that the accused, who include a police constable and a scribe from neighbouring Kadapa district, were nabbed at Pamur junction on the Nellore-Badwel road by a special team constituted by her following a complaint lodged by a jewellery shop owner in Nellore.
The complainant, N. Chiranjeevi, said in his complaint that he was robbed while travelling to Vijayawada to buy gold last Tuesday. A knife and two cars used by the accused for committing the offence were also seized.
The gangsters had made away with ₹50 lakh in cash posing as police personnel after coming to know that he was carrying unaccounted money with him.
After a lot of dilly-dallying, Mr. Chiranjeevi finally lodged a complaint with the Gudlur police only on Friday last. Gudlur police registered a case under Sections 120(B), 170, and 395 of the IPC. The SP formed three teams which achieved a breakthrough in the case after collecting relevant information from toll gates on the expressway.
The accused were identified as T. Nagaraju (35), B. Srinivasulu (33), K. Sudhakar (38), B. Gopikrishna (22), P. Subbarayudu (38), D. Kalyan (36), and M. Naveen Prasad (43), all from Nellore and Kadapa districts.
Giving further details of the case, the Superintendent of Police said accused no. 2 (A2) in the case, Srinivasulu, was working as a driver for Mr. Chiranjeevi. Srinivasulu conspired with his relative Nagaraju, who is the main accused in the case and who has three criminal cases pending against him in Nellore. Nagaraju conspired with a police constable, accused no. 3, in Kadapa district after coming to know that the jewellery shop owner was going to Vijayawada on that day to buy gold.
They then tailed Mr. Chiranjeevi in two cars and overtook Mr. Chiranjeev’s car near Kavali. The three accused, posing as police personnel, intercepted his car on the pretext of vehicle checking at Shantinagar within Gudlur police station limits, snatched away his car key and asked him to come to the DSP’s office in Kandukur as he was carrying ‘unaccounted cash’. They then struck a deal with him and agreed to let him go free if he gave them ₹25 lakh in cash. When he was about to give the amount, they brandished a knife and threatened to eliminate him before decamping with ₹50 lakh in cash being carried by him.
The SP declared rewards for the Kandukur division police for cracking the case quickly.
