Cyberabad: 5 held for fake I-T raids at realtor's house

Cyberabad: The Cyberabad police on Thursday arrested five members of a gang that raided a realtor's house posing as IT officials and decamped with gold ornaments and cash. The police recovered 1.2 kg gold and five mobile phones from their possession

The arrested were identified as Aravind, Murali Sridhar, Venkat Rao, Sandeep, and Mohan, all natives of Andhra Pradesh. While another four Marupudi Jashwanth, Saibaba, Srinivas and Chalakapati Srinivas are still at large.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Cyberabad CP Stephen Ravindra said, "The accused Aravind and Sandeep stayed in neighbouring villages in East Godavari and became friends, while Sandeep and Mohan were college friends from Vizag. In August 2020, Mohan set up a restaurant called Bucket Salads at Lumbini Amrutha Chambers Building in Road No 3, Banjara Hills. The same building also had Bhuvanateja Real Estate Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd. where Mohan got acquainted with Jaswanth, who worked as an executive at the real estate firm."

"The accused, Jashwanth introduced Mohan and Sandeep to Venkata Subramaniam, the managing director of Bhuvanateja Real Estate and from there on, Subramaniam frequently visited the restaurant of Mohan and in August 2021, Mohan and Sandeep opened a cafe called Revival at Vittal Rao Nagar, Madhapur. In October 2021, Aravind met Mohan and Jashwanth in a bar and they became friends and from there on they partied regularly. In one such party, the accused Jashwanth told his friends about Venkata Subramanyam and his real estate business and the gang then hatched a plan to steal cash and gold from the man's house in Jayabheri Orange County and they decided to impersonate as IT officers to commit the crime," added the officer.

Before executing their plan, the gang realised that they needed more men and for this reason, Aravind went to his village and recruited his friends Murali, Srinivas, Saibaba and Venkat Rao and promised them huge money. On December 12, Aravind and his friends arrived in the city and rented a room in Manikonda. Sandeep, Mohan and Jashwanth met Aravind and his friends to discuss their plan. Aravind explained that they would impersonate as IT officers, conduct a fake raid, and seize gold, cash and other valuables.

As per the plan, the gang showed the victims their fake ID cards and told them they were from the IT department and searched the house. They took all gold ornaments weighing about 1,340 grams, and cash worth Rs 2 lakhs and fled the place.