Mangaluru cops bust suspected gold hawala; recover Rs 1.75-cr; arrest 2

Mangaluru, Nov 5: The city police have busted a suspected gold hawala and recovered of Rs 1.75 crore in cash, following the arrest of two persons allegedly involved in the kidnapping of a a jewellery firm employee who had come to the city with the cash.

The operation was carried out by a special police team consisting of personnel from city crime branch (CCB) and Urwa police station on Monday.

Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh, at a press conference here on Monday, identified the accused as Abdul Manan, 29, of Talapady, and Razi, 26, of Padil.

On October 23, Manjunath Ganapati, an employee of Vaishavi Jewellers on Car Street, returned to the city from Mumbai around noon in a private bus and got down at Ladyhill bus stop. As he was crossing the road, two people pulled him into a car and told him the Assistant Commissioner of Police was in the front seat. They abandoned Mr. Ganapati near Bajpe and made away with his bag. Three days later, he filed a complaint with the Urwa police station about theft of his bag containing cash of Rs. 15 lakh.

Mr. Suresh said a special team, headed by Urwa Police Inspector Ravish S. Nayak and Central Crime Branch Inspector Shantaram, was formed to trace the accused. The team succeeded in arresting Manan and Razi. Manan was involved in eight criminal cases in the city including two cases of murder.

On questioning, the arrested revealed that the bag contained Rs. 2.35 crore. Manjunath Ganapati had taken a parcel of gold jewellery items to the Vaishavi Jewellers unit in Mumbai and was returning with the huge amount on October 23. The accused reportedly revealed that they kept a close track of the victim’s movement from Mumbai. The booty was reportedly shared among six people.

The police recovered Rs. 1.75 crore that included 7,250 notes of Rs. 2,000 denomination and 6,000 notes of Rs. 500 denomination. They are on the lookout for the other accused. The accused revealed that they followed the modus operandi of Target Gang – a gang involved in extortion – in collecting the information and robbing the person.

Mr. Suresh said Vaishavi Jewellers’ owner Santosh Kurdekar and Mr. Ganapati were yet to give them a reason for not disclosing the actual amount. The police have asked the Income Tax department to inquire into the case, he said.