Maharashtra SIT arrests six people in alleged Rs 400 crore heist case

Mumbai: Six people have been arrested in a kidnapping case linked to the alleged heist of demonetised Rs 2,000 currency notes valued at around Rs 400 crore.

With many questions still unanswered in the case that allegedly occurred in October last year, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has widened its investigation into the murky affair that has sucked in police from the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. 

Maharashtra police, which set up the SIT in January this year, is coordinating with their counterparts in Karnataka and Goa to take the case ahead. 

A total of six persons — Jayesh Kadam, Vishal Naidu, Sunil Dhumal, Virat Gandhi, Janardan Dhaygude and Sayyed Azhar — have been arrested so far in the case.

Virat is a hawala operator based in Ahmedabad, according to Nashik rural police. All the arrests happened in January. 

The incident took place on October 16, 2025, when two container trucks carrying a substantial amount of cash allegedly went missing in the forested Chorla Ghat stretch in Khanapur tehsil, Belagavi district, along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.

The money originated from Karnataka and was destined for Gujarat, where it was supposed to be converted into lower denominations and transferred to Maharashtra, Nashik rural police had told the local media. More than two months after the incident, on Jan 9, 2026, a man named Sandeep Patil, a resident of Igatpuri, Nashik district, filed a police complaint with the Nashik rural police claiming he was abducted at gunpoint by associates of Kishor Sheth. According to the FIR, Sheth, also a resident of Nashik, accused Patil of orchestrating the container heist.

Patil claimed that he was detained for over a month and was tortured and told to pay Rs 400 crore. However, he managed to escape and filed a complaint with Nashik rural police, the FIR said. Nashik Rural SP Balasaheb Patil is coordinating the efforts.

“We are making investigations into the case,” Additional SP Aaditya Mirkhelkar told reporters. The FIR also names Kishor Sawala, who is a builder from Thane.