ANKOLA (UTTARA KANNADA): The incident of a car being found in Ramanguli forests near Ankola in the last week of January 2025 has turned out to be a case of dacoity. So far, it was considered to be a case of hawala transaction.
The Uttara Kannada Police had found the car containing a box of money inside Ramanaguli forests near Gullapura, en route to Ankola and Yellapur. Almost three weeks after the car was recovered, it has emerged to be a case of dacoity, where a group of miscreants chased the car that was carrying cash belonging to a jeweller from Dakshina Kannada and made away with Rs 1.7 crore cash, which was being transported by the driver and an assistant hired by the jeweller, Rajendra Prakash Pawar.
As per a complaint by Mohammed Issac, 42, the driver, he was told by Akash, assistant of the jeweller, to deliver jewellery to a Belagavi-based customer Sachin Jadav, and get the money from him.
“On January 26, Akash asked me to deliver the gold. He said another person, Abdul Samad, would accompany me. We took the gold which was nicely packed and left around 3.45 am on January 27. The gold was kept inside a locker under a seat of the car. Akash changed the number plate of the car for safety reasons. We reached Belagavi at 11.30 am and contacted a person, related to the customer. Jadhav’s men took the gold and paid us Rs 2.95 crore,” he said in his complaint to Ankola police.
Of this money, Rs 1.8 crore was put in two lockers (the car had lockers to transport gold) under the driver’s seat and the seat next to the driver. The remaining Rs 1.15 crore was kept in a locker under the rear seat. Issac left for Mangaluru via Dharwad, Kalaghatagi and Yellapur and headed towards Ankola at around 3.30 pm.
They were intercepted by another car around 4 pm and five persons, who were armed with knives, got out the vehicle. “They broke the glass of the car, threatened us, took the keys and one of them took into the car and drove away. Samad was taken in their car. I was blindfolded with tape. The car stopped en route.
I heard noise and realised they were breaking the locker. After some time, there was no sound and I slowly removed my blindfold and found things scattered, car doors damaged and the cash boxes under the front seats were open. I found about Rs 5 lakh rupees lying nearby.
I put the cash in a carton, took an autorickshaw and reached Yellapur, from where I boarded a bus to Ankola, came to Kumta and reached Mangaluru around midnight. They had taken our mobile phones and wallets,” he said in the complaint.
“On reaching Mangaluru, I met my friend and asked him to hand over the cash to Pawar”, he added. Meanwhile, the miscreants abandoned the car in Ramanaguli, and it was seized by the police. Samad, whom they had taken with them, was dropped off at an isolated place.