A truck owner has been arrested for allegedly colluding with the driver he had hired to steal 30 tonnes of rice that was to be transported to a customer in order to recover the losses he had incurred. He planned to sell over 1,200 sacks of rice, and also sold the truck to a junkyard in Salem, Tamil Nadu, before reporting the ‘theft’.
The Bagepalli police, while probing the case, realised that the truck owner, Giddaiah, who runs Jai Maruthi Transport, had orchestrated the incident.
On September 27, Giddaiah, along with his driver Pradeep, 28, walked into Bagepalli station and filed a complaint claiming that the truck and its contents had been stolen. In his statement, Pradeep claimed that he was transporting the load of rice from Raichur to Bengaluru, but some thieves drove off with the truck when he stopped for break near a temple at Bagepalli.
The police registered an FIR and started probing the case. However, during the course of the investigation, they found evidence to show that Giddaiah had not been upfront with them. “The driver also was acting suspiciously. When we analysed his call record details, we found that he had been to Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh and Salem in Tamil Nadu,” said a police officer.
The police questioned Pradeep about his visit to Kurnool and Salem, but when he couldn’t give them coherent answers, they took him into custody, where he allegedly confessed to Giddaiah’s involvement.
According to the police, Giddaiah had incurred huge losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising price of diesel, following which he took a ₹12 lakh loan. In order to repay it, he planned to sell the rice. He also organised for Pradeep to sell the truck to a junkyard owner in Salem and was getting ready to claim insurance for it.
Based on the information, the police recovered the 1,216 sacks of rice which Pradeep had stored at a relative’s house in Kurnool. “The duo have been arrested for cheating and filing false case,” said the officer.
