Five people, who allegedly impersonated Income Tax officials and took away gold and cash from the house of a real estate businessman at Gachibowli in Hyderarabad’s IT sector on December 13, were arrested and over 1 kg of stolen gold ornaments were recovered from them, police said on Thursday, December 16. Search is on for four others who are absconding, the police added.
The nine accused, all hailing from Andhra Pradesh, hatched a plan to loot money and gold ornaments from the house of the Managing Director of a real estate firm in connivance with a collection boy working at the office of the real estate company, police said. As per their plan, some of the accused, claiming to be Income Tax officers and carrying fake ID cards, entered the house when the realtor was not there and made his wife Bhagyalakshmi, children and her driver sit in the hall and searched the house, police added.
Bhagyalakshmi told police that believing them, she handed over the keys of the cupboards and locker. The accused were present in the house for one-and-a-half hours to give an impression that they were conducting an investigation and took away around 1,340 grams of gold ornaments and other valuables besides Rs 2 lakh in cash and fled from the spot, a release from the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate said.
The woman had later realised that she was cheated and lodged a complaint with the police. A police officer had said they registered a case and authorities have been scanning CCTV footage from the area to identify the culprits. A case was registered and during the course of investigation, police nabbed five of the gang members on Wednesday, December 15, near Hyderabad and during interrogation, they confessed to the crime, police stated.
Police recovered 1,276 grams of gold ornaments from them and efforts were on to nab other absconding accused.