HYDERABAD: More than 48 hours after one of the biggest highway heists in Telangana took place, Rachakonda police are still clueless about the container in which stolen cigarettes worth `4 crore were shifted.The police have been verifying the modus operandi of the accused persons in similar offences to find out where could the cigarettes sold in the black market. The Rachakonda police have formed five special teams to trace the container and nab the accused. Officials suspect involvement of 14 to 18 persons in the heist and say that they could have dispersed to different cities/towns in smaller vehicles.
An investigating official said, “We are suspecting involvement of an inter-state gang which is highly professional in doing such offences. The container has gone missing since Sunday after the offence and was only seen twice at two places on the highways.”The sleuths on Monday questioned Ramu, who guided Akhilesh till Uppal, but they could not get any leads from him. “We are studying the previous cases of robbery and highway heists in which ITC products were involved and expected to get some good leads by Tuesday evening,” said the officer. “We are trying to trace the mobile numbers of the suspects,” said the officer on condition of anonymity.
During early hours on Sunday, a container lorry moving to Tirupati from Hyderabad was hijacked at Peddamberpet and made way with cigarettes worth `4 crore by kidnapping the driver of container. The container driver Akhilesh Kumar Yadav lodged a complaint at Hayathnagar police station.