JOIN USThe police have arrested a gang of 11 which had robbed the owner of a wineshop in Rajagopalanagar on October 5.
The arrested have been identified as Raj, Vinod, Krishna, Srikanth, Prem, Rajesh, Arun, Kiran, Charan Raj, Harish and Prem Kumar S.
The police recovered gold and silver valuables worth Rs 5 lakh and a bike from the arrested.
They had robbed Venkatesh, owner of Kapila Wines.
Venkatesh was living on the first floor of the building while the wineshop is located on the ground floor. On October 5, they went to Venkatesh’s house and told him they had come to collect details about his family for a census.
While Venkatesh was giving the details, his driver Nagaraj also came home. He was also asked to fill the details.
The gang tied and gagged the duo after thrashing them. They asked them to hand over Rs 2 crore in cash which was kept in the house, added the police.
But Venkatesh told them he did not have so much cash. They ransacked the house and made away with gold and silver valuables worth Rs 5 lakh.
After a couple of hours, the driver managed to untie himself and approached the Rajagopalanagar police and registered a complaint.
“Based on vital clues and CCTV footage, the gang members were arrested from Mandya. Investigations revealed that Prem, who was imprisoned for theft, had met one Krishna Gowda, a murder accused, at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. Gowda told Prem that the owner of Kapila Wines recently got Rs 2 crore in a land deal,” said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity.
“Prem, who was released a month ago, told his friend Charan about the plan to rob Venkatesh. They then informed their other friends.
Members of the gang have been committing crimes for the last 10 years and have several cases registered against them,” the police officer said.