Hyderabad: Theft case investigation reaches anti-climax, hawala offender nabbed
Investigation reveals that Astrologer, at whose house theft was reported, was running hawala racket
Hyderabad: Investigation into an alleged theft of precious stones and cash from the house of an astrologer in LB Nagar here has led to the proverbial skeletons tumbling out of the closet, with the astrologer himself now being arrested along with those allegedly involved in the theft.
The police, who said the astrologer allegedly took even the burglars for a ride, have found that he was also running a hawala racket, again, by double-crossing those who approached him for Trade Profit Fund deals.
The complicated case began unravelling when the Rachakonda Police Special Operations Team along with the LB Nagar police arrested six persons on charges of theft in the residence of the astrologer, B Murali Krishna Sharma.
Police seized cash and a car worth Rs 13.8 lakh apart from fake Indian currency of Rs 2,000 denomination, valued at Rs 17.70 crore.
The arrested persons were V Pawan Kumar alias Chari (28), a mobile mechanic, D Rama Krishna (26), N Suresh Gopi (25), Ch Vijay Kumar (27), K Suryam (25), C Nagendra Prasad Sharma (32), all from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. It was then that the police found that the gang, which allegedly carried out the burglary last week, was itself cheated after they found that the bags they stole from Sharma’s house had no precious stones and that even the cash they stole was fake. There were only 16 original Rs 2,000 notes.
According to the police, Nagendra Prasad, a distant relative of Murali Krishna Sharma, came to Hyderabad along with Pavan to meet Sharma. Pavan saw bags of currency in Sharma’s residency, and believing that they were real, hatched the plan along with Prasad to steal the money.
“The two returned to Guntur and roped in the other suspects,” Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, adding that they came to Hyderabad on a car that had fake number plates on June 15 and after stealing the bags from Sharma’s house, fled the spot.
It was after they crossed Choutuppal that they opened the bag and found that there were no precious stones and that the notes were fake.
Taking the Rs 32,000 original cash, they burned the rest, Bhagwat said, adding that based on their confession after they were arrested on Wednesday, the police inspected Sharma’s residence, which was when more fake currency notes, with a face value of Rs 17.72 crore, were found in cartons. It was revealed that Sharma was earlier arrested for a Trade Profit Fund fraud by the police in Andhra Pradesh. He, along with another suspect in the case, was released from prison in January last year.
He then began posing as a millionaire, and showing fake currency as original, cheated several persons into giving him money as Trade Profit Fund. He had cheated four people of over Rs 30 lakh in similar fashion. Police arrested Sharma on charges of cheating, dealing fake currency and also for lodging a false complaint.
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