Muthoot robbery bid: Four arrested

​Hyderabad: Four of the seven-member gang of robbers, who made an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Muthoot Finance branch at Mailardevpally on July 4, were arrested by the Cyberabad police.

The arrested robbers include Arshad Fulumuddin Khan of Mumbai, ShafiuddinNavaboddin Sayyad, Santosh DasharathVeerkar of Osmanabad and Mohammed Dastagir of Hyderabad. Three more robbers - Shareef, Anna and Farooq – all residents of Mumbai are at large.

Police recovered a stolen car, two knives, four mobile phones and one iron rod from the arrested persons. Police said all the accused except Dastagir have formed a gang while in prison in Maharashtra and stole the Chevrolet Tavera car from Gujarat. The gang visited Hyderabad several times to identify vulnerable branches of Muthoot Finance and decided to rob Mailardevpally branch.

Dastagir provided shelter to three of the accused during their visits to Hyderabad. Accordingly, the gang went to Mailardevpally branch on July 3 but did not get a chance to rob. The gang again went to the branch on July 4 around 10.30 am posing as borrowers andthreatened the employees with weapons. However, the alert staff sounded alarm forcing the robbers to flee.

While escaping, the gang abandoned the vehicle at Happy Homes Apartment in Attapur, police said. During search, police found a polythene bag in the abandoned vehicle. Police also identified some robbers with the help of CCTV footages and made strenuous efforts to nab them.

The efforts paid fruits when police teams arrested two accused in Hyderabad and two others in Osmanabad, police said adding that efforts were on to nab the absconding accused.