A gang of dacoits reportedly waylaid the car of a contractor from Kerala in Gonikoppa police station limits in Kodagu in the early hours of Saturday and robbed him of ₹50 lakh.
The complainant Shamjad, a 38-year-old contractor, residing in Kodakkad in Mallapuram district of Kerala, was returning to his native through Kodagu district in the wee hours of Saturday when his car was waylaid by a gang of 10 to 15 people in three vehicles near Devarapura in Gonikoppa police station limits.
The complainant said he had melted his wife’s jewellery in Kozhikode and taken the gold bar weighing 750 grams to a jewellery maker on Ashoka Road in Mysuru from whom he collected ₹50 lakh. “He decided to sell the gold in Mysuru after learning that he will get a good price,” according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, the dacoits, who had apparently received a tip-off, waylaid the car in which the complainant and his accomplice Afnu, a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala, were returning to their native with the money at Devarapura in Kodagu.
“The accused dacoits forced themselves into the complainant’s car and demanded that he part with the money. When the complainants denied they were carrying any cash, the accused, who had taken control of the car, drove for a few kilometres into the interior areas, where they threatened him with dire circumstances if he did not part with the money. A minor scuffle took in which the accused slapped the complainant,” a police official said citing the complainant.
Later, the accused forced the victims out of the car and drove the vehicle away further deep into the interiors. The victims later walked to the nearest highway and took a drop to Virajpet police station in a passing vehicle. After narrating their ordeal, they were directed to Gonikoppa police station under whose jurisdiction Devarapura falls, where an FIR was lodged.
Meanwhile, the police later traced the complainant’s car in Kolathodu village in Kodagu. The car had not only been ransacked but also thoroughly damaged by the accused in their bid to locate the cash hidden in the vehicle. “There was no cash in the car when it was later traced,” police confirmed.
Inspector General of Police, Southern Range, Mr. Boralingaiah visited the spot in Devarapura where the car was waylaid while Superintendent of Kodagu district police K Ramarajan visited the spot in Devarapura and and the spot in the interior village in Kodagu, where it was found ransacked and abandoned.
The Kodagu district police, meanwhile, have constituted a special team and taken up the investigation. “We have clues and we are working on it,” said Mr. Ramarajan.
A senior police official said the dacoity appeared to be a “targeted attack” with the accused having precise information. The police would also be formally seizing the gold bar sold by the victim to the jeweller in Mysuru as part of the investigations., the official added.
