Taking advantage of Model Code of Conduct in force in Telangana, a gang posing as police officials conducted vehicle checks and made away with ₹18.50 lakh cash from a businessman in Hyderabad’s Panjagutta. The police have registered a complaint from the businessman.
Inspector of Panjagutta police, B. Durga Rao, said that the businessman, a clothing merchant from Begum Bazaar, was heading home around 10 p.m. on Thursday night with his driver when the “police” stopped them. “They were stopped near Khairatabad RTO junction by two men. They claimed that the men identified themselves as police and found ₹18..50 lakh cash with them,” said the official.
Officials said that according to the businessman, the men showed up in a khaki uniform from a van that looked like a police patrol vehicle.
Talking about the ‘seizure’, Detective Inspector S. Kranthi Kumar said that as per the statement from the businessman, the men pulled up in a police patrol van. “They claimed that the men were wearing law and order khaki uniform and left ₹1.50 lakh cash by seizing ₹18.50 lakh,” said the official adding that the victim approached police suspecting foul play.
The cash was then seized by the men in the name of unaccounted cash being circulated during the Telangana Assembly elections.
Following a complaint, a case was booked against the unidentified persons and a probe was launched to nab them, The Hindu reported.
