5 imposter officers held for Rs 1.08 cr robbery

The accused were identified as Mugil (27) of Maduravoyal, Gajendran (31) of Poonamallee, Kodiarasan (30) of Sriperumbudur, Venugopal (27) of Iyyappanthangal and Siva (31) of Vyasarpadi. Police said that Gajendran and Kodiarasan, who were former employees of the construction firm, masterminded the robbery along with the absconding the main accused in the case.

“The main accused told Ganjendran and Kodiarasan that he has got an ‘expert’ gang of robbers and asked them for information regarding cash movements. On their tip-off, the gang carried out the heist on March 15,” said police.

On the day of the incident, three employees of the construction firm received a sum of Rs 1.07 crore from a financier in Vepery as per the directions of their director, and were on their way to Adyar. The amount was meant for paying salaries to employees. When their car was near Saidapet bus stop, they were stopped by another car that had a sticker ‘Flying Election Squad’ on it.

A few men in uniform stepped out and asked the trio to step down. They made them to board their car, dropped them off near Vandalur and escaped with the bag containing cash.

Based on a complaint by one of the victims, Udayakumar, a case was registered by the Saidapet police and five teams were formed to nab the gang.

The police teams nabbed the suspects from their hideouts and remanded them in judicial custody on Monday. A two-wheeler and a car were also seized from them apart from the cash. The police have launched hunt for the remaining accused persons.

A day after an election flying squad officer was suspended for allegedly demanding bribe from a man for letting him go with cash in his possession in Villivakkam, a police sub-inspector and two constables who were involved in the incident were also suspended on Monday. While the flying squad officer has been identified as Babu, a Corporation zonal assistant engineer, the SI attached to Koyambedu was identified as Vasudevan. The duo along with constables Veeramani and Karthikeyan allegedly demanded Jai Guhan of Avadi to part with Rs 5,000 as he was found passing by ICF with Rs 50,000 in a car during a vehicle check on Saturday night. As Jai Guhan refused to bribe them claiming that there is no restriction for carrying upto Rs 50,000, the flying squad reportedly took him to Villivakkam police station. Jai Guhan, who ended up paying Rs 2,000, lodged a complaint about the incident to V Sridhar, assistant chief election officer, after which Babu was suspended on Sunday. Sources said that SI Vasudevan and the constables were suspended on Monday.