BENGALURU: A gang of three men, posing as Income Tax officials, robbed Rs 1 crore belonging to an industrialist on NICE Road near Thalaghattapura on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday. The gang stopped the truck and forced the driver to get off and took away the cash.
The complainant, Arogyaraju, a native of Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu, is a distributor for chocolates and biscuits and has a warehouse in Peenya Industrial area. In his complaint, Raju stated that the driver of the Mitsubishi Canter, Erendar Raj, was heading towards Kerala after offloading goods in the warehouse. He had collected Rs 1 crore, including Rs 5 lakh in new currency notes from retailers in the city.
Around 4.30 am Raj, along with two other workers, was passing through Nagegowdanapalya bridge on NICE Road when three men came in a car and stopped the truck. They claimed that they were Income Tax officials and asked Raj to open the vehicle’s rear door. Then, they asked Raj to open the box containing `1 crore. They loaded the cash into their car and asked Raj to sit in the rear seat. They drove the car towards a police station and asked the two workers who were in the truck to follow them. After driving for about 1 km, the gang threatened Raj to get off the car and fled with the cash.
Raj then called the owner Arogyaraju and narrated the incident. He came to the city on Thursday and filed a complaint. It is also said that there were more than 15 accused when the incident took place.
A senior police officer said, “Based on preliminary investigations, we suspect that known people could be behind the incident. We are also not ruling out the involvement of workers who were in the truck, which had Tamil Nadu registration.
“We also asked the complainant to produce all related documents as part of the probe and a team has been formed to nab the accused. CCTV footage is also being examined to ascertain the movement of the gang,” the officer said.