Hyderabad: Congress leader Thirumalesh held in robbery case

Hyderabad: Task force officials have taken absconding  local Congress leader Thirumalesh Naidu, who is suspected to be involved in a robbery at Banjara Hills two days ago, into custody.  Another accused, the detective inspector of Tappachabutra, Y. Rajashekhar, is still absconding, west zone police officials said.

The police could not recover the robbed money so far as the cash is believed to be with the inspector. Following a tip-off, a team of the Commissioner's Task Force went to Vijayawada to hunt down the inspector. However, they could not arrest him.

Thirumalesh and Rajashekhar had robbed a trader named Laxman Agarwal of Rs 30 lakh. They trapped him in a private guest house on the pretext of exchanging demonetised currency and took away his cash.

The victim, Laxman Agarwal had come to Hyderabad with money to exchange it with demonetised currency for a commission. He had contacted his dealer, who trapped him by informing the Congress leader and the cop.

"We are trying to trace the absconding inspector and other suspects in the case. The investigation is progressing," a senior official from west zone said.

Pseudo cop gang busted, 6 nabbed
Police busted a pseudo police and fake I-T officials’ gang who robbed a trader and his aides of Rs 9.2 lakh a week ago by arresting six people.

The gang had stopped and searched the victim’s car, and kidnapped his team before taking away the cash in Rs 2,000 notes while he was transporting the money to Vikarabad. The gang claimed that they are I-T officials and members of the Special Operation Team of Cyberabad.

The victim, Mohammed Salman Pasha from Vikarabad, had come to Hyderabad to exchange currency and had got Rs 9.2 lakh in Rs 2,000 notes from his friends.
He and his two aides, Krishna and Shakeel, were returning to Vikarabad with the cash on November 26 when they were robbed.

“They had stopped their car at Langer Houz Green Bawarchi Hotel to have dinner. The suspects came there in a car with a beacon light on it. They picked up the victims, beat them up and searched their car. After finding the money they forcibly confined the victims inside the car, and took them to the Income-Tax Tower area in Masab Tank, where some more people joined them stating they were I-T officials. Later, they took the victim to Tippu Khan bridge near Golconda, dropped them there and fled with the cash,” said DCP Venkateshwar Rao.

Police arrested the suspects, Shiraz Ahm-ed, 46,  an accountant from Tolichowki, Moh-ammed Irfan, 29, from Langer Houz, Syed Imroz Ahmed, 30, Gulshan Colony, Syed Mustafa Ali, 19, from Domalguda, Syed Azher Hussain, 22, from Golconda and Mah-mood Khan, 53, from Hussaini Alam. Police said three more people were absconding. The gang had got info about the victim’s movements and had chalked out a plan to rob him, officials said.