HYDERABAD: As many as 416 cartons of Gold Flake Kings cigarette, worth `3.28 cr, were recovered from a notorious inter-state dacoity gang by the Hyderabad police on Tuesday. The cartons belonging to ITC Limited, Pune, were robbed while in transit at Indapur bypass in Maharashtra on June 10. The accused, after shifting the goods from ITC’s container to DCM vehicles, had brought them to Patancheru outskirts for disposal in the city here.
The accused are Allah Shah, Dastagiri Shah, Radhakrishna, Satish, Mohd Arshad and Sunil, all residents of Karnataka and have been involved in several cases in Telangana and Karnataka. They were intercepted by the the Chikkadapally crime team and the West Zone team of Commissioner’s Task Force at VST crossroads.
According to police, Dastagiri who has worked in different transport companies hatched the plan about a month and half ago along with his brother Allah Sha and others. They conducted a recce for 15 days
after deciding to target the containers of ITC which has a plant at Ranjangaon. The accused decided to intercept the container with a single driver, so that there would be least resistance.
On June 10, the gang followed a container which left the factory and stopped it at Indapur. After overpowering the driver and tying him up, they took the truck to a remote village near Humnabad in Karnataka and offloaded the cigarette cartons. After deactivating the GPS device, they abandoned the vehicle near Humnabad.
Later, based on a complaint from the driver, a case was registered at Temburi police station in Pune.
