Mandya: A 13-member gang which had looted Rs 66.5 Lakh from the occupants of a car after throwing chilli powder on them was arrested by Malvalli police, according to Mandya Superintendent of Police C H Sudhir Kumar Reddy.
Disclosing the details, SP Sudhir Reddy said among those arrested most belong to Doddamulagodu in T Narsipura taluk. They are Dileep, Anand alias CCTV Anand, Rajesh, Abhishek, Puroshotham, Vasu and Babu. The rest belong to Ramandur in Malvalli Taluk, including Umesh, Channakeshava, Cheluvaraju, Mahadevaswamy and Ramalinga and a lone member from Bekka village of Shravanagelagola named Manja.
Police have recovered a car, mobile phones and motor bikes used for robbery and Rs 52.81 Lakh cash out of Rs 66.5 Lakh. Police during routine patrolling found a Toyota Etios car in a deserted place near a canal between Ramandur and Karalikoppalu with glass panes smeared with broken egg contents.
On December 13, Kalenahalli postmaster Srinivas had registered a case stating that Jyothi International Hotel owner’s son Srinivas had assured of exchanging new currency with spiked currency.
The car occupants were robbed of their huge amount of cash when they were headed to a location to exchange the currency. On December 12, four members including Srinivas, Raju, Manjula and Anand had left in the afternoon in a Toyota Etios car bearing number KA-51-B-0887 to exchange new currency with spiked currency.
Suddenly, the 13-member gang had waylaid the car, smeared egg contents on the window panes and chilli powder on the faces of car occupants before decamping with Rs 66.5 Lakh cash.
In the complaint, postmaster had stated that his friend Swamy had lost Rs 10 Lakh cash in the robbery. Srinivas, son of Rangaswamy had lost Rs 14 Lakh, Chetan-Rs13 Lakh, Vinaykumar-Rs 10 Lakh and Raju-Rs 20 Lakh respectively.
Police suspect that the information about the car occupants carrying new currency was leaked by someone to the culprit gang which eventually led to the daylight dacoity.
