JOIN USA true crime of opportunism has been cracked by the City Crime Branch (CCB) police, who unearthed a plot to loot property, including jewellery and cash, worth more than Rs 9 crore, belonging to a 70-year-old woman, who died long back.
The CCB has arrested eight people—Venkatesh (38), Kumar Raj (23), Anand (24), Kamal (23), Narasimhamurthy (45), Arun (38), Srikanth (28) and Vikram (19)—for meticulously planning and executing an elaborate crime.
City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said that in 2007, some rag-pickers, trying to steal vessels, came upon a dilapidated house in the Nagappa Block of Srirampura where they noticed the skeleton of K B Chandra, an elderly woman. They immediately removed the jewellery from the body and stole a few documents before informing their friend Anand.
Body disposed of Anand reached the house and disposed of Chandra’s body in a drain. He then contacted his friend Venkatesh of Gandhi Bazaar and handed over the documents to him.
The police said Venkatesh was the mastermind of the plan. Venkatesh, President of the Scheduled Caste, Backward and Minorities Welfare Association at Gandhi Bazaar, had been implicated in two other cases of fraud and forgery.
Fake voter’s ID
Venkatesh, according to the police, engaged the services of his aunt, Navamani (70), and took her to his friend Srikanth, who created a fake voter’s identity card for her in the name of K B Chandra. In February 2009, they took Navamani to Vijaya Bank and used the card to withdraw Rs 7.45 lakh from Chandra’s account. To prevent suspicion, Venkatesh closed the account after withdrawing Rs 15 lakh, and deposited the money in a new account.
Chandra owned three sites in Bangalore and one in Chennai valued at Rs 9 crore. Venkatesh had not sold any of these sites, and the eight accused had planned to divide the total amount after selling the sites.
The police have recovered records of the sites, Rs 2 lakh in cash, bank deposits worth Rs 5.75 lakh and 50 grams of gold jewellery.