Man hands over ‘stolen’ bag with 18 lakh, stuns cops

The city police, baffled by the mystery of an alleged Rs 18 lakh- robbery executed by a gang on Thursday night and the money being returned at a police station near Parry’s Corner within a few hours, are in hot pursuit to have the case cracked.

Confirming such an incident to have happened, a police officer said, “It is true that the bag containing the money, which was said to have been robbed, was returned to police personnel at Harbour station later. We are joining pieces in the puzzle to get a clear picture.”

According to sources, it all started when Mohamed Abobakar Siddique (36), employed with a firm in Parry’s Corner, was heading from Triplicane along with his friend to his employer’s to hand over cash to the tune of Rs 17.9 lakh. Around 8 pm on Thursday, while he was passing Moore Street in Parry’s Corner, a gang allegedly intercepted the duo, attacked them and took away the bag containing the cash.

“Siddique later lodged a complaint at North Beach police stationstating that he was robbed by a 7-member gang,” the police said.

However, the incident took a surprise turn when a man, identified as Dharmadurai, reached the Harbour station the same night with a bag containing cash amounting to Rs 17.9lakh and handed it over to the personnel there. He claimed to have picked the bag from Moore Street.

Upon coming to know about it, a team from the North Beach police station rushed to the spot and held inquiries with Dharmadurai. Oninspection, it was found that the bag containing cash was the same as the one robbed from Siddique.

“We are trying to find out the real sequence of events and the motive behind the entire chain of events. Each of them are saying different versions. We have collected CCTV footage from the entire stretch and are now collecting call details of Siddique and Dharmadurai,” a senior police official said,adding that they hope to have the puzzle cracked by Saturday.