BENGALURU:A police constable and a temporary appointee postman have been arrested in connection with the Times Bar and Restaurant shootout case.
The arrested are Constable Yellappa Banaje (30) attached to Mico Layout police station and Dinesh of BTM Layout post office.
According to the investigating officials, an accused in the shootout travelled to Dubai to collect the supari money using a passport obtained through fake documents. Constable Banaje allegedly cleared the passport verification process fully aware that the documents were fake.
Additional Commissioner of Police (West Division) Pratap Reddy said, “We are checking if the passport scam is wide-spread. We are also looking into whether other policemen were involved in it.” He also added that they are checking all the passports verified by Banaje.
Dinesh of the Speed Post division used to deliver the passports despite incorrect addresses. Police are interrogating him to ascertain the extent of his involvement in the scam, Reddy said.
With this, the total number of arrests in the case has gone up to eight. The Ashoknagar police had earlier unearthed the passport racket after an accused confessed that he had gone to Dubai on a passport he got from racketeers.
The six arrested earlier included two contract employees of BangaloreOne centres. The accused had opened fire at Chethan, the owner of Times Bar and Restaurant on Residency Road, on August 16.