Bengaluru police foil Rs 1-crore robbery in just 15 mins

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police arrested a gang of eight robbers by recovering Rs 1.01 crore looted from a couple on Saturday evening. The entire police operation — from response to arrest — was completed in just 15 minutes, they said. 

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Akshaya Park, Akshayanagar, off Bannerghatta Road, around 6.15 pm when two men waylaid a couple and demanded to check their car for an investigation. 

The couple — real-estate dealer Mota Ram and his wife Lakshmi Devi — had gone there to hand over Rs 1.01 crore in cash to Hemant for a property deal. 

Hemant, a car driver, had come on the instructions of his employer Mohan — an arecanut trader from Tumakuru — to collect the money. He reached around 6 pm, and the couple followed 15 minutes later. He conveyed his employer's instructions, and the couple showed him two cash-filled bags in their car. 

Just then, two unknown men rode up on a motorbike, tried to open the car's doors and questioned the couple. Claiming that they needed to "check" and "video-record" them, one of the men filmed the car and the cash. When questioned, they attacked Lakshmi and Hemant, and tried to snatch the bags but the trio somehow managed to lock the car and drive off. 

The suspects didn't give up. They tailed the car and rammed it from behind, forcing the victims to make a U-turn and stop near a deserted area. 

Hemant and Ram were then forced out of the car, while Lakshmi remained seated inside with the bags. 

One of the men attacked Hemant again, and was joined by four of his accomplices. The gang dragged him and the couple into a shed at the vacant site, seized their phones and demanded Rs 10 lakh to let them go. 

One of the suspects gave Hemant a mobile phone, asking him to contact his boss Mohan and arrange the money. When he refused, the gang confined them for nearly two hours, robbed them of the cash, along with cars and phones. Hemant later agreed to call his boss Mohan, and quickly told him what had happened. 

Mohan immediately contacted the Subramanyapura Assistant Commissioner of Police, who then alerted Joint Commissioner of Police (East) Ramesh Banoth. 

Next, Hulimavu police inspector BG Kumaraswamy was alerted. Coincidentally, he and his team were at the nearby DLF Junction on an area-domination exercise. They rushed to the vacant plot, nabbed all the suspects, rescued the victims and recovered the money — all within 15 minutes. 

The arrested suspects are Narasimha, 34, a car driver from JP Nagar; Jeevan, 27, a gym trainer from Begur; Kishore M, 30, a labourer from Anekal; Venkataraju, 28, a waterboy from Anekal; Chandiran, 33, an auto driver from Kalasipalya; Kumar N, 36, a security guard from Anekal; Ravi Kiran, 33, a security guard from Begur; and Naman, 18, a milk seller from Yelenahalli. 

Police suspect the dacoits had inside information about the property deal and are seeking their custody for further investigation.