Chhattisgarh police on Tuesday busted an inter-state gang involved in lifting cash from banks across the country, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Raipur Range, G P Singh.
Addressing a press conference here, Singh informed that 16 members of the inter-state gang were arrested by Dhamtari police from Bilaspur and cash worth Rs 15 lakh was recovered from their possession. The gang had lifted Rs 10 lakh cash from Bank of Baroda in Dhamtari district in March this year. Besides, the gang had also targeted a bank in Durg district.
The arrested were natives of a village Ramji Nagar in Triuchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu where 500 persons were involved in similar type of activities, said Singh, adding that probably, the gang may have committed around 200 crimes across the country.
Initial investigation, revealed that the gang has committed crimes in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, he informed.
Shedding light on course of investigation leading to the arrest of gang members, Singh said that taking the cash lifting case from the bank seriously, SP Dhamtari Manish Sharma launched an intense investigation.
Corroboration of CCTV footage collected from the bank and other facts hinted that the accused may be from southern part of the country.
The footage was uploaded in a Whatsapp group of police following which it was confirmed that the gang hails from village Ramji Nagar of Tamil Nadu’s Triuchirapalli district. Based on initial investigation, teams were dispatched to Visakhapatnam and Ramji Nagar.
After reaching Ramji Nagar, the police team received a tip-off about presence of the gang in northern part of the country, added Singh.
Meanwhile, a police team active in West Bengal received a breakthrough about movement of the gang members in Malda railway station after which the team started following them and eventually nabbed them from Mumbai-bound train at Bilaspur railway station, he said.
The IGP further added that preliminary investigation revealed that the 52-year-old gang leader Shakti is possessing movable and immovable property of over Rs 16 crore.