Hyderabad: A gang led by three regional TV channel stringers and two cops pretending to be task force officials, robbed Rs 19 lakh from a stock broker at Bollaram on Friday night. The gang intercepted the broker’s car for a ‘police check’ at Rythu Bazaar, took him to an isolated place, threatened and robbed him.
North zone police arrested six suspects in the case and recovered Rs 15 lakh. Of this Rs 10 lakh was in Rs 2,000 notes, while the rest were in Rs 100 notes. The police is not yet clear on how the victim, Siddamsetty Santosh, got this much money in Rs 2,000 denomination notes. Police officials said they have alerted the IT department about the seizure to check the source of cash.
Though the police arrested the TV channel stringers, the two cops, Mursubavi Sudhakar Reddy, 28, and Medar Yadagiri, both from Alwal police station, are still absconding. Police said one of the TV channel reporters, Uppala Praveen Kumar posed as the SP of the task force, and two others, Seth Deepak and P. Suman, posed as reporters covering the police checking. The two cops from Alwal police station pretended to be task force officers. Four others too later participated in the robbery.
“Santosh and three others took the cash from their home at Bowenpally and were heading for his native place in Armoor in Nizamabad in an i10 car. While they were waiting for their business partner at Rythu Bazaar, the five suspects came on a bike and introduced themselves as task force officials. They started checking the car and took the cash bags from the car’s dickey. They told the victims that they will be booked under criminal law after taking them to the police station. They made the victims follow them in their car on the pretext of going to the police station, took them to an isolated place and robbed the cash,” said north zone DCP B. Sumathi.
