Bengaluru: Three Crime Branch cops suspended for extorting trio of banned notes

Bengaluru: A day after a Central Crime Branch (CCB) Assistant Sub-inspector and two constables were suspended by Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar, allegedly for robbing a woman of Rs 1 crore in demonetised currency, the High Grounds police arrested a man who was an accomplice of the three CCB policemen.

The arrested, Ramesh Raju, was an accomplice of the three tainted cops - ASI Hombale Gowda and Constables Narasimhamurthy and Gangadhar, who were attached to the CCB's Homicide and Burglary squad. Ramesh was picked up from Tamil Nadu on Friday evening.

According to the police, Ramesh is the registered owner of one of the cars, a Baleno, used for robbing the two women of Rs 1 crore on November 25. The other car used belonged to the CCB, which was verified by CCTV footage.

The tainted cops, who are still at large, had stolen seized demonetised currency notes of Rs 2 crore from the CCB strong room and got it exchanged with the new ones.

Later, they robbed women to put back the money in the strong room and make it appear that the money hadn't moved at all.

"The three cops who are absconding have switched off their mobile phones. Criminal proceedings will be initiated against them," the police said.

Ramesh acted as an informant
According to the police, it was Ramesh who passed on the information about the conversion of banned notes into valid ones. Ramesh, who came to know about the deal, informed the CCB ASI who then planned a raid on the women. Ramesh posed as a constable of Seshadripuram police station and was part of the robbery.