The Upparpet police have cracked a theft case and arrested a 34-year-old cab driver and three of his associates for allegedly stealing ₹1 crore cash from a arecanut trader.
The accused has been identified as Swamy, a resident of Holalkere in Chitradurga, who worked for Umesh, an arecanut trader for the past 15 years. He used to ferry Umesh across the State for business trips. Swamy realised that Umesh was carrying ₹1 crore cash to purchase arecanut and conspired with his friend Anupama, 38, and her two friends Pawan, 30, and Karthik, 27, to loot the money, the police said.
Swamy shared a duplicate key of the car with his associates and they followed him in a car. On October 21, Umesh came to Bengaluru and asked Swamy to stop for lunch at a hotel in Gandhinagar before heading to a Paying Guest (PG) accommodation in Chandra Layout to meet his children who are studying in Bengaluru.
While Swamy and Umesh went inside the hotel, the accused stole the bag full of cash using the duplicate key and escaped. The theft came to light when Umesh returned home and found the cash bag missing. An unsuspecting Umesh rushed to Upparpet police station and filed a complaint.
The police analysed the CCTV camera footage from in and around and suspected Swamy’s involvement and kept a tab on him. The police picked up Swamy for questioning, who confessed to the crime. Based on his confession, Inspector Maruthi and team arrested the remaining three persons and recovered ₹90.19 lakh cash, expensive phones, watches, a car, and a bike from them which they had purchased using the rest of the money.
