Belagavi: A gang of four which had robbed a florist from Tumakuru of Rs 24 lakh in Belagavi city a month ago by throwing chilli powder in his eyes has been arrested by the police and Rs 12 lakh of the stolen amount has been recovered from them. All the accused were also florists and selling flowers at Hukkeri town for some years. On December 4, florist Narayanappa from Tumakuru, who is a wholesale supplier of flowers, had gone to Hukkeri to supply flowers to local florists and the four accused were also his customers. Narayanappa would collect lakhs of money from all florists in the region at regular intervals and head back to Tumakuru via Belagavi.
The accused, who were keeping a tab on his movements in December first week, were aware of the large amount of money he was carrying. They chased him from Hukkeri to Belagavi, caught him near Sagar Hotel where he was about to board a bus to Tumakuru and robbed him of Rs 24 lakh before fleeing. Soon after the incident, Narayanappa had filed a complaint with Belagavi police. A team of CCIB police traced the culprits based on information provided by the complainant. The arrested are identified as Asgarali Makakdar, Umesh Bastwade, Yallesh and Shashikanth, all residents of Hukkeri, according to in-charge Belagavi Police Commissioner Ramachandra Rao, who briefed the media about the incident here on Monday.
