Manhunt ends; cops crack Muthoot heist case

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad Police cracked the case of dacoity, which took place at Muthoot Finance, RC Puram branch on December 28, by arresting at least five members of the inter-state gang who had posed as CBI officials while committing the crime.

The accused allegedly robbed gold jewellery weighing 41.8 kgs, after threatening the staff and customers with firearms.

According to Cyberabad officials, the CCTV footages of the vehicle going towards Karnataka had helped trace the accused. During the course of investigation, Inspectors of different police stations were involved in the operation who visited Patan cheru, Sangareddy, Shankarpally, Vikarabad, Parigi, Kodangal, Ribbanpally Check Post, Sedam, Shabad and Chittapur of Karnataka and collected CCTV footages and verified them.

They came to the conclusion that all the accused fled the spot in a black Scorpio and zeroed in on the details of its registered number.

The kingpin Lakshman Narayan Mudhang alias Bhayya is a resident of Nasik in Maharashtra. His role was to identify the finance agency’s branch to be looted and conduct recce before committing the offence.

Lakshman previously went to Nasik jail, Arthur Road jail and Thane jail in 1999–2000 under Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act. He earlier targeted Muthoot Finance of KPHB and Mini Muthoot Finance at RC Puram.

He was successful in robbing 12 kgs of gold in Muthoot Finance of Gulbarga in Karnataka in March 2016.

The accused include Ganesh Pandurang Bhonsle alias Patil and Subhash Pujari Pandey, both were accomplices of Bhayya in dacoity cases related to Muthoot Finance earlier.

Sunder Rajaratnma Kangalla, a native of Mumbai is a friend of Bhayya and has several cases on him and a known rowdy-sheeter. Above mentioned four and Thukaram Gaikwad, a resident of Mumbai, are amongst those who were arrested.

While four others linked to the case including a Mumbai-based jeweller, remain at large.The police seized the gold jewellery weighing 3.5 kg and cash of Rs 5 lakh, besides one country made pistol and three vehicles used by the accused.