L.T. Marg police have arrested eight accused for allegedly robbing ₹1.13 crore in cash from a courier office in Bhuleshwar last month.
The police said on May 29, three unidentified men barged into the office at around 11.15 a.m., bound and gagged the employees at knifepoint and fled with the cash. An FIR was later registered with LT Marg police.
The police said that the office was run by a member of the Angadia community, which is involved in ferrying large amounts of cash to businessmen, jewellers, diamond merchants and wholesalers.
‘Planned robbery’
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Dr. Dnyaneshwar Chavan said, “The office was not on the main road, indicating that it was not a random target. This could have been an inside job. One of the employees, Ripen Patel, confessed to having informed his friend, Bhavik Panchal, about large amounts of cash being stored in the office.”
The police said that Mr. Patel revealed that the accused hailed from Ahmedabad and had visited the city twice before the robbery to do a recee of the office. After the burglary, they fled back to Ahmedabad. Mr. Patel and Mr. Panchal were arrested following the revelation and police teams were dispatched to Ahmedabad to nab the accused. The police soon learnt that the accused were splurging the loot at Grand Hyatt in Goa. The police arrested Santosh Chauhan, Jigar Patel and Narendra Jadaun from the hotel.
‘Poor security measures’
Further investigation led the police back to Ahmedabad, where they arrested Kallu Sharma and Pankaj Prajapati. Another accused, Deepak Bhadoriya, who fled to in Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, was ultimately arrested in Agra. The police said the trio was involved in planning the robbery for over a month.
Dr. Chavan said, “We have recovered ₹92 lakh from the accused. All of them are in the 25-30 age group.” The accused have been charged with causing injury while committing robbery, house trespass and wrongful confinement under the Indian Penal Code.
The police said that the Angadias remain inconspicuous to avoid attention from criminal elements. However, failure to put in place security measures makes them easy targets when inside information is let out. Dr. Chavan said, “We have been communicating with owners and employees of such offices located in secluded areas and issuing guidelines about recruiting staff and implementing safety measures.”
