ONGOLE: Kandukur police of Prakasam district have cracked the highway robbery case within 48 hours of the FIR being lodged and recovered the stolen cash of Rs 47 lakh from seven accused. According to district SP Malika Garg, Chiranjeevi, who owns a jewellery shop in Nellore left for Vijayawada along with two others to purchase gold on August 31. When he reached Shanti Nagar under Gudluru PS limits, three persons posing as policemen stopped his car on NH-16, took the car keys away and told him that they have information that he is carrying large sum of illegal money.
They asked him to come to the DSP’s office. To set him free, they demanded Rs 25 lakh. While the complainant was opening the money bag to pay the ‘police’, one of them snatched it from him—the money bag contained Rs 50 lakh—and zoomed off in the victim’s car. Chiranjeevi approached Gudluru PS on September 3 and lodged an FIR.
The police collected clues from the crime spot, took the data from toll gates and analysed the movement of the vehicles. On Monday, Kandkur CI and his team arrested the accused at Pamuru Junction on Nellore-Badvelu Road. They recovered `47 lakh cash from them and seized two vehicles used in the crime—an Innova car and Scorpio—and the knife from one Subbarayudu (A5), who is a YouTube journalist of Badvelu in Kadapa district.
The police said Srinivas (A2) told Nagaraju (A1) that Chiranjeevi was going to Vijayawada on August 31 to buy gold. Srinivas worked as Chiranjeevi’s car driver, while Nagaraju has a history of committing crime in Nellore district. Both A1 and A2 conspired with K Sudhakar (A3) who worked as a constable in Atluru PS of Kadapa district.Sudhakar engaged the Innova car of Gopi (A4) of Badvelu and recruited Subbarayudu and his friend Naveen (A7) to execute the crime. Another member Dorababu (A6) was also taken into custody.