NEW DELHI: It was a fine morning on October 27 when Prasanta Manjhi was asked by his employer to deposit his Rs 1,26,000 cash in a bank. Little did he know that his momentary greed would land him in serious trouble. When he entered the bank, a man approached Manjhi.
The man was none other than a part of criminal syndicate, infamously known as ‘Gaddi Baaz gang’, who are perfectly equipped and talented in cheating people. The man asked Manjhi to fill out a deposit slip, but he refused. The culprit had sinister plans. He told Manjhi that he has Rs 3 lakh cash, which he had stolen from his employer, and that is why he can’t deposit it into his own bank account.
The man had convinced Manjhi that if he deposited that Rs 3 lakh cash, the man would pay him Rs 20,000 extra. Manjhi’s greed took over his sanity and he agreed. The man handed him over a bundle of notes wrapped in red cloth, of which he showed a Rs 500 note on top, and instructed him to deposit it. But then how was Manjhi tricked? There was a twist in the plot.
Another person, an accomplice of the first accused made his entry into the scene at this juncture. Three of them had a chit-chat and the person who had just arrived asked the man for some money. Then he asked Manjhi to give Rs 26,000 and deduct the same from the bundle of notes he had already given to him. Manjhi did as they said and later went to deposit Rs 3 lakhs which was concealed in a red-cloth.
When Manjhi opened it at the cash counter, he was shocked and so were the officials sitting there. Only one note of Rs 500 was stuck on top, and the rest was paper stuck till the bottom. This is the modus operandi of ‘Gaddi Baaz gang’.
Complainant Manjhi then approached the cops, who registered a case under relevant sections of law. In view of the sensitivity of the case, a team was formed that first analysed the CCTV footage and extracted images of the alleged people. “Their pictures were shared with informers and we got a lead. A raid was conducted and three people Ravi Kumar, Nitin Kashyap, and Virender Mehto were nabbed,” a senior police officer said.
When greed takes over sanity
Prasanta Manjhi was convinced that if he deposits Rs 3 lakh cash, as the stranger had asked him, the man would pay him Rs 20,000 extra. Here, Manjhi’s greed took over his sanity and he agreed