HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad Police arrested six persons for breaking into the house of a civil contractor and attempting to flee with Rs 50 lakh in cash. Those arrested include the driver of the contractor. According to the cops, Mohammed Muqthar (24) was working as a driver with civil contractor Sanjeeva Reddy alias Raja Reddy of Upperpally from January this year. He was being paid Rs 18,000 as monthly salary.
Muqthar knew that Reddy was in the habit of keeping cash in his house and hatched a plan to steal it. He went to his native place Doma in Vikarabad and hatched a plan with his friends B Yadaiah alias Yadagiri (23) and Shaik Amjad (21). Muqthar brought Yadagiri to the city and showed him the house They planned to burgle the house on April 16, when Sanjeeva Reddy's family was planning to leave to Andhra Pradesh to attend a marriage.
Muqthar, who was to accompany the family to Andhra Pradesh, knew this would avoid suspicion on him. As planned, the duo burgled the house. They broke into the house through the back entrance, hacked the aluminium wardrobe and made away with the money. They also sprinkled some chilli powder all over the house. The family got to know of the burglary only on April 21, when they returned to the city.
Amateur Operation
From the beginning, the cops knew the heist was executed by amateurs. "Professional offenders mostly do not target houses with central locking system. Also, they open wardrobes and doors tactically. But in this case, they were hacked. Also, the chilli power was sprinkled haphazardly. This made us suspect the accused could be someone known to the family," said Shamshabad DCP PV Padmaja.
Suspicion increased on Muqthar as he went absconding from work. He was picked up from Akola in Maharashtra and his five associates Yadagiri, Amjad, Shaik Jahangir (24), M Venkatesh (21) and M Mahesh (21) were nabbed from Doma. Venkatesh and Mahesh were given the job of collecting Muqthar's share from Jahangir . The cops recovered `42.87 lakh from the accused among other things. Interestingly, Muqthar had left to Akola after the heist to get married.
He was picked up a day after his wedding. He had purchased gold ornaments for his fiance for the marriage. Jahangir, who did not participate in the burglary but was assigned the job of sharing the cash. He stashed away `14 lakh for himself and an additional amount for his younger brother Amjad. He gave `10 lakh to Muqthar, and `13 lakh each to Yadagiri and Amjad, who did not even check the actual amount of cash they had looted.
"With the money, Jahangir cleared his debts and paid the contractor who was building his house to speed up works. None others in the gang even knew that Jahangir had taken `14 lakh, until it was revealed by police officers," said another police official.