In an incident that seems straight out of a recent Hindi film ‘Special 26’, a gang of five robbed two employees of a bullion shop in Kerala of four kilos of ingots posed as Income Tax (I-T) department sleuths. The incident took place on the night on November 6. The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has arrested the six men, who are from Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
The gang struck when Anand and Mahesh, employees of a jewellery shop in Talacheri, were returning to Kerala after procuring ingots from a bullion shop in Nagarthpet. They had boarded a private bus in Kalasipalya. Before the bus could leave, two men walked up to them and identified themselves as IT sleuths. They forced the employees to alight at Madiwala bus stand where three others were waiting. The trio claimed to be senior I-T officials. The gang took the two men to JP Nagar in an auto rickshaw. On the way, they demanded the ingots and also told them to come to a police station the next day.
The two employees suspected something fishy and refused to part with the gold. The gang assaulted them before fleeing with the ingots.
CCB sleuths identified two men from the CCTV footage at Madiwala bus stand. They also got the registration number of the vehicle and using that tracked the gang to Kolhapur. The arrested men are Sarfaroz Khan, Ramjij Chaus, Javed Harun Sheik, Shalal Mohammad Makandar and Praveen.
Police said that Praveen had worked with a gold bullion firm and was acquainted with Anand and Mahesh. He had planned the heist. He alerted the rest of the gang and stayed in a hotel in the city, through the heist co-ordinating with the gang.
