Daijiworld Media Network - Mudigere
Mudigere (Chikmagalur), May 10: A Tata Sumo which was said to be belonging to 'IT officials' met with an accident. It then came to light that the so-called 'IT officials' were actually dacoits who were making a getaway after robbing a person of gold, silver and other valuables Rs 33 lac!
The incident took place near Raitha Bhavana here on Friday May 9. A person who was in the vehicle at the time of the incident was handed over to the police by the locals and was arrested.
The arrested person has been identified as Chatrapathi (25), a resident of Holalkere taluk in Chitradurga, who was driving the Sumo. The other people allegedly involved in the crime are suspected to be residents of Holalkere and Bangalore.
It is said that two persons took a Sumo at Holalkere and picked 6 others who had come from Bangalore from the railway station. They then reached Chikmagalur bus stand and halted in a lodge nearby, it is learnt.
The dacoits on early Friday morning carried out a dramatic and sudden raid on the residence of Prasanna, a coffee estate owner in Heechuvalli village under Gonibeedu police limits. They claimed to be IT officials by showing their fake ID cards.
They asked Prasanna that they had received a complaint against him, and told him to produce all the documents related to his luxury items, failing which he would be taken to Bangalore for further enquiry. Prasanna, being a person of some influence, cross-questioned them. The dacoits then snatched his mobile phone, tied him up in a chair and escaped with gold, silver, 4 gunny bags of pepper, aluminium plates from the puja room, kitchen utensils and other items, altogether worth Rs 33 lac.
In a bid to escape from the spot, the accused drove the Sumo at a high speed, and in the process, hit an Indica car driven by D Niranjan, a lawyer from Chitradurga, near Raitha Bhavan in Mudigere town. The front tyre of the Sumo is said to have burst due to the impact of the accident. The dacoits even tried to replace the tyre, it is learnt.
As crowd gathered near the accident spot, the dacoits tried to escape from the scene leaving the vehicle behind. But the locals chased them and were successful in catching hold of the driver of the vehicle and handing him over to the police. Alerted by this incident, the police put barricades in various places around the town and succeeded in catching hold of three more accused, it is learnt.
Higher police officials visited the spot and carried out primary investigation. The police chiefs have promised to catch hold of the remaining accused in 48 hours.
A case has been registered in the Gonibeedu police station.
The dacoits' gang had 7 to 9 members and they were speaking in Kannada, Tamil, English, Telugu and Hindi. Four or five members of the gang were wearing police uniforms and one of them had a toy gun in his belt, it is learnt.
Various items including five plastic bags of pepper, toy gun, bottle of scent, wigs, fake beard and so on were found inside the Sumo. It is also suspected that the Sumo might have been stolen. There were words in Arabic script written on the vehicle.