An engineer who hired a gang to loot Rs. 1 crore from a jeweller at gunpoint, was arrested along with the gang members by the Alwal police on Saturday.
While Rs. 61 lakh of the booty was recovered with the arrest of Dasari Anvesh and the eight-member gang he had hired to carry out the dacoity, their associate Kailash Singh is still at large, Alwal DCP V. Siva Kumar told a press conference. Those arrested are not habitual dacoits.
Anvesh, a nephew of bureaucrat V.D. Rajagopal, one of the accused in the OMC scam, used to work as technical analyst in a private company. He came in contact with a commission agent Jayanti of Somajiguda, who deals in gold and real estate. The woman offered him an attractive deal to make money in the gold business, claiming to be able to procure gold at a cheaper price. However, they fell out after a while and Anvesh charged that she owed him a few lakh rupees, but the woman refuted it, the DCP said.
Double-crossing
The engineer decided to recover the money from her by hook or crook and asked his associate Radhakrishna, also a broker, to keep a tab on Jayanti’s deals.
“Radhakrishna played a double game here. He approached the woman saying that a jeweller known to him wanted to buy five kilos of gold and was ready to pay Rs. 1 crore,” Alwal ACP G. Ganesh Reddy explained.
On February 25, jeweller B. Venkat Kumar came to Alwal carrying Rs. 1 crore and told Jayanti over phone to arrange the gold. Radhakrishna alerted Anvesh about the transaction.
The engineer, who had already hired a gang from Dhoolpet, came to the place in two cars and barged into the house and took away the cash threatening the jeweller with a country-made pistol.
“But the gang, instead of sharing the booty with either Anvesh or Radhakrishna, shared it among themselves and dispersed,” Alwal Inspector B. Pushpan Kumar who busted the gang said.
Relentless efforts and tracking of the mobile phone conversations enabled Alwal police nab the gang and recover Rs. 61 lakh.