Hyderabad: Cops have arrested a suspect believed to be involved in Wednesday’s robbery at Lifestyle building owner, Madhusudhan Reddy's residence.
Shivananda alias Ravi had arrived at the residence pretending to be a godman. Using call data records and location of the phone, he was arrested by police from Bengaluru on Thursday, where he was hiding at a relative's home. Police has seized cash from him and are now shifting him to Hyderabad for questioning.
Earlier, police nabbed the Shahjahan, who had driven the conman swamy from Bengaluru to Hyderabad. Shivananda had arrived in the city to perform a puja at Madhusudhan Reddy's residence. He is accused of drugging the residents and stealing 1 crore in jewellery and cash from the house.
Police said that Reddy himself had booked the car from a travel agency at Bengalurul. Reddy, the owner of the Lifestyle building in the city, came to know about “Shivananda Swamy baba,” through a friend over a year ago. Both have been in constant touch and recently, the businessman invited the godman over to perform a pooja at his home.
Reddy then booked a car for Shivananda from a Bengaluru-based travel agency and he along with driver Shahjahan reached Hyderabad on Tuesday and checked into a hotel at Banjara Hills, booked by Reddy.
In the evening of the same day, Reddy and the godman went shopping for the puja material to Begum Bazaar. After completing the puja at around 3pm on Wednesday, Shivananda offered tainted prasadam to Reddy, his wife Vidyavathi and their son Sandesh. Shivananda then suggested Sandesh accompany him with over 1 crore in cash to a temple nearby for another puja. And following that ceremony the two went to Shivananda's hotel room where a drugged Sandesh's car keys were used to transfer the cash bag into the baba’s car. When Sandesh and the baba started for Reddy's home in two separate cars, Shivananda gave him the slip.
After Sandesh returned home, he found his parents unconscious. He took them to a hospital and lodged a complaint.
