Inter-state dacoit gang arrested for looting 80 lakh

Bengaluru: The Wilson Garden police arrested the notorious interstate dacoits who had robbed the owner of Arecanut Mandi(market) of Rs 80 lakh under the guise of the police. Investigation revealed that the accused were associated with the MLA from Adoni constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

Bhatal Shivaram Krishna Yadav (19), Sheikh Chempati Lal Basha (36) and his brother Sheikh Chempati Zakir (27) from Andhra Pradesh were arrested. The accused had robbed Rs 80 lakh belonging to Mohan Kumar, the owner of Arecanut Mandi of Tevadehalli village in Gubbi taluk of Tumkur district.

Mohan Kumar had sent his car driver Chandan and Arecanut Mandi worker Kumaraswamy to Bangalore on December 27, 2022 to deliver Rs 80 lakh to a person from Salem. Mohan Kumar told the car driver to get money from a financier in Bangalore. Accordingly, Chandan and Kumaraswamy, who came to Bangalore in the morning on December 27, took money from the financier and left for Salem by car. The accused, Chandan and Kumaraswamy, who were waiting near the financier's house, committed the act after knowing that the money was being taken.

As a pre-planned plot, the 4 accused followed Chandan's vehicle in a Swift car and blocked it at Rivoli Junction on KH Road. Two of the accused, who were wearing police uniforms, suddenly boarded Chandan's car at the junction with batons. One of them claimed to be a police sub-inspector and made Chandan and Kumaraswamy sit in the back seat of the vehicle. Another accused sat on the driver's seat of the car and drove towards the Outreach school. The other two accused in the case followed in a Swift car and came near the Outreach school.

Later, the four accused attacked Chandan and Kumaraswamy and took away the bag containing money and the car key. The accused had told them to come to the police station with the money documents before escaping. Later, Chandan filed a complaint at Wilson Garden police station. On the basis of this complaint, the police started investigating on the basis of the footage captured in the CCTV cameras of the financier's house where Chandan and Kumaraswamy received money, near the Rivoli Junction where the incident took place, and near the outreach school and the surrounding area. Later cops tracked the culprits and arrested the accused.

The accused took the looted money to the house of the MLA of Adoni Constituency in Andhra Pradesh. The accused who had stayed in the MLA's house for 2 days had gambled and spent money there. Then on December 30th, they came back to Bangalore and returned to Andhra for gambling. Later, the Andhra Police arrested the brothers of Sheikh Chempati Lal Basha and sent them to jail in the case of red sandalwood tree smuggling, senior police officials said.

When accused Bhatal Shivaram Krishna Yadav was arrested and interrogated, he gave information about other accused. Later, the whole case came to light when Sheikh Chempati Lal Basha's brothers were taken into custody from jail on a body warrant and investigated. Another accused in the case is absconding. We have issued a notice to Adoni MLA to attend the hearing on the charge of sheltering the accused. Officials said that they have seized Rs 37 lakh from the arrested.

Sheikh Chempati Lal Basha's brothers were notorious in red sandal smuggling. The accused used to transport red sandal to Dubai, Mumbai and New Delhi. Many MLAs of Andhra were protecting him from the police. 54 cases have been registered against Sheikh Chempati Lal Basha and 33 cases against Sheikh Chempati Zakir in Andhra related to red sandal smuggling. Also, the brothers were arrested and imprisoned several times. Officials have informed that the investigation revealed that he had earlier committed dacoity in a house in Bellary district of the state.