The district police on Tuesday suspended six policemen, including a sub-inspector, following charges of robbery, in a money seizure case, here on Tuesday. Four other persons who were involved in the incident have also been arrested.
While the policemen involved in the incident are absconding, district police have been able to recover Rs eight lakh from the persons arrested.
The officials suspended are sub-inspector Jagadeesh, head constable Satish, and constables Ashok, Lathif, Ravi and Manohar.
Saleem and Shareef, residents of Kushalnagar, along with two other individuals have been arrested by the police in connection with the case. Police has however not revealed the identity of two other individuals who have been arrested.
Addressing a press meet, Superintendent of Police, Abhinav Khare said that the preliminary investigation into the money seizure case has provided evidence about the role of police personnel in the case.
It can be recalled that the police personnel accused in the case had raided a bus on January 4, and had filed an FIR that an amount of Rs 20,70,000 had been recovered. A few days later, Sainulabhideen, a businessman from Kozhikode, Kerala had lodged a complaint that Rs 2.27 crore, belonging to four persons in Kerala, had gone missing, contrary to the FIR filed by the police personnel.
“While we had suspected the businessmen of misleading the police, an investigation into the issue revealed several loopholes, indicating that the personnel had seized more than the recovered amount,” he said.
Six police personnel, along with four informers had planned to rob the ‘Hawala money’, which was being transported to Kerala in a bus. Two of the four, Salim and Shareef, were acquainted with head constable Satish. The duo, who was aware that the money was being transported in a bus every month, tipped off Satish, to raid the bus and make away with the loot.
On January 4, the duo had followed the bus from Srirangapatna and had informed about the whereabouts of the bus to the accused personnel, before the raid took place in the outskirts of the city.
Bribe
Following the raid, Saleem and Shareef were paid Rs 15 lakh by sub-inspector Jagadeesh, near APMC outpost in the city, Khare said. Of the Rs 15 lakh, Rs eight lakh has been recovered.
“By analysing the call records of police and the informants, it is clear that the informants and the personnel were involved in incident,” he added.
Among the anomalies that helped police in probing the issue was the video recording made during the raid. “The video footage shows that the recording began thirty minutes after the raid was conducted, which indicated that there was some foul play,” he said.
He also noted that two of the personnel involved in the incident, had prior criminal records. District police are investigating the whereabouts of the accused and the missing money, he said.
On a question on why such a large amount was transported in a bus, Khare said that the money might be transported in such a manner to avoid payment of taxes. “The businessmen were involved in bullion trade. Even though such large payments should be made through banks, they were transporting the cash to evade tax. We will refer the incident to the Income Tax department, to explain the source of the money,” he said.
