Bengaluru police nab gang that looted Rs 1.5 crore cash from lecturer’s home in guise of government officials

According to the police complaint filed by the college lecturer, Giriraj Kumar, 47, four persons posing as government officials barged into his residence at Yelahanka in north Bengaluru between 10.45 am and 11 am on September 19, and made away with Rs 1.5 crore in cash and 50 grams of gold jewellery after scaring his wife and elderly parents.

The crime occurred after the college lecturer left for work. The four robbers arrived in a Toyota Innova and were dressed formally, wearing coats, ties, formal shirts, trousers and shoes and claimed to be from the “government enforcement agency” but did not specify any organisation’s name.

The gang searched the house and, after failing to find anything, forced the wife of the lecturer to take down bags kept on a kitchen loft in the house and threatened her when she refused. The gang reportedly found the cash and jewellery in the bags stored in the loft.

The preliminary investigations suggested that the gang was aware of the presence of cash in the house, and the needle of suspicion pointed to an inside job.

“The complainant was questioned from different angles and some leads emerged leading to the arrest of seven persons and recovery of Rs 1,27,61,200 of cash and various documents and seizure of two cars used in the crime,” the Bengaluru police commissioner said.

“It was found that one of the accused, a resident of Domlur, who was involved in this case, was working as a driver in the house of the complainant. On the tip-off given by this accused that there was money in the house of the complainant, all the other accused plotted the crime. After hatching a conspiracy, four persons went to the house of the complainant and carried out the robbery,” the Bengaluru police said Saturday.

The police said that the driver, who quit his job a few months ago, tipped off the gang about the presence of a large amount of money at the lecturer’s house from a land deal.

The arrested men have been identified as Hemanth Kumar Jain, 42, Kiran Kumar Jain, 51, Nemakal Jagan Mohan Goud, 54, Rajendra Jain alias Rajendra Munoth, 42, Sreenivas S, 44, Shankarappa A, 55, and Srinivas Gouda, 52. One person who was involved in the crime is reportedly missing with the remaining cash.

Among the persons arrested is a man claiming to be an office bearer of an organisation called the International Human Rights Ambassador and Anti-Corruption and Crime Bureau, with seals and documents of the group found during searches. “A separate case will be taken up regarding the misuse of these organisations,” the Bengaluru police commissioner said.

During the investigations, three bags containing Rs 38.80 lakh in cash were initially recovered from a godown and an office in Bengaluru. An amount of Rs 55 lakh was seized in a house in Hyderabad, where one of the accused had moved, and Rs 25.80 lakh was found at the house of an accused’s relatives in Ranimakapalli village in Andhra Pradesh.

An amount of Rs 4 lakh was recovered from the Bengaluru residence of the driver who tipped off the gang about the presence of the cash, the police said.

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