Four held for robbing advocate of Rs 26 lakh

The city police have arrested four persons who impersonated as City Crime Branch officials and robbed an advocate of Rs 26.49 lakh of which Rs 17.49 lakh was in demonetised currency notes.

The arrested have been identified as Ramesh (33), Rupesh (37), both residents of Magadi Road, Puttaraju (47) of Kamalanagar and Mutturaya Shetty (42) of Ullal Main Road. According to police, the suspects struck a deal with Anand, an advocate, to exchange scrapped notes for new ones for a commission.

On January 13, Anand left his house with Rs 26.49 lakh in demonetised currency notes. However, he met one of his acquaintances who too was exchanging currency notes. Anand exchanged old notes worth Rs 9 lakh with him. Later, he met the four suspects in Basavanagudi. But, they claimed to be CCB officers who were on an operation to arrest people exchanging currency notes illegally. They took all the cash with Anand and fled the spot.

Anand did not inform the police immediately, but later brought the matter to the notice of the CCB. The police raided Ramesh’s house on Magadi Main Road on Tuesday and based on the information provided by him, arrested his three accomplices.