BENGALURU: Kumabalagodu police have arrested a gang of five men in a dacoity and abduction case, which had taken place at Muthoot Mini Finance in Mariyappanapalya on Outer Ring Road near Jnanabharathi on October 20. The accused posed as policemen while robbing gold worth `90 lakh and `1.18 lakh cash after kidnapping the manager.
The arrested are Suresh Chandra (33) alias City Bank Nagaraj alias Bhaskar, a resident of Andrahalli in Gollarhatti; Mohemed Junaid (42) alias Mahesh Poojari alias Shivakumar of Ittamadu; K R Manjunath (38) alias Gold Manju of Laggere; Umesh (23) alias Mahadev of Girinagar; and Prasanna Shetti (35) alias Girish of RPC Layout in Vijayanagar.
Police said that after entering the Muthoot office, the accused broke the CCTV camera and also damaged the DVR box. Though there was a security guard, he did not stop them because he believed the men were policemen.
A senior police officer said that the gang barged into the office posing as cops around 7.30pm and handcuffed the manager Nagendrappa just when he was about to leave. They forced him to sit in an Innova car, claiming that they had to interrogate him in a case. They took him to Machohalli near Nelamangala and assaulted him. The next day, they came to the finance firm and robbed the gold.
During investigation, police found that the prime accused, Suresh was involve in several cases of robbery. He had also cheated many people on the pretext of offering them jobs in private companies. Suresh had also cheated many banks by taking loans from them. He had been arrested in Chennai and Bengaluru several times.
Acting on a tip-off, Suresh was nabbed at Andrahalli and when he was grilled he confessed about the robbery case, police said.
He had hatched the robbery plot with his friends, all of whom are habitual offenders. The gang had examined at least 15 small finance firms across the city to know about the movement of the staff members. They then finalised on Muthoot Mini on Nagarbhavi Road as the office had minimum staff members and the area is less crowded.
After the dacoity, the accused decided not to use mobile phones. They also avoided roads and junctions that had CCTV cameras, police said.
The accused bought uniforms and lathis from BVK Iyengar Road claiming that they are performing a drama, police said.
The car used by them to kidnap the manager was also stolen. Suresh, Junaid and Manjunath had booked a cab in Mysuru, claiming that they plan to go to Dharmasthala.
However, when the car reached Hunsur, the gang threatened the driver at gun point and forced him to leave the vehicle with them.
The gang then changed the number plate by copying the number of a vehicle which they saw was up for sale on OLX. After this, they left for Bengaluru. They had booked the cab through JustDail, police said.