:
Shivamogga Police have arrested three residents of Madhya Pradesh on charges of stealing 350 bags of arecanut and recovered valuables worth over ₹ 1.42 crore from them.
The arrested are Razak Khan, 65, of Indore, Theju Singh, 42, of Ghatabillod and Anees Abbasi, 55, of Shajapura. The police recovered 24,500 kg of red areca worth over ₹1.17 crore, besides the truck worth over ₹25 lakh.
Madhukar, an areca merchant of Sagar taluk, had sent 350 bags of arecanut to Gujarat through Dholaram, a transporter, native of Bhadravati. The transporter had arranged the truck for transportation. However, the truck did not reach its destination. Based on a complaint from the merchant, Sagar Rural Police had registered a complaint.
Shivamogga SP G.K. Mithun Kumar, in a press conference on Wednesday, said the police did hard work to locate the missing goods. After visits to different locations in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, they arrested the accused with the help of police in Madhya Pradesh.
The accused – drivers and cleaners – had come to Bengaluru to deliver a load of wheat. They had forged identity cards and fake documents of the vehicle. They contacted areca transporter Dholaram and took the job of transporting areca bags to Gujarat with the help of fake documents they had. They took the truck to Indore instead of Gujarat. They had thrown their cellphones into moving trucks at different locations, making it difficult for the police to track.
Appreciating the policemen involved in the investigation, the SP has announced a cash prize of ₹10,000. They would also get letters of appreciation, he said. The investigating team included Rohan Jagadish, ASP, V. Praveen Kumar, PI, Tirumalesh Naik, PSI, and others.
