In a daring daylight dacoity six persons claiming to be from the crime branch of Mumbai Police barged into the house of a city hotelier on Monday and vanished with Rs 25 lakhs in cash.
The victim is Naresh Nagesh Nayak (44), who runs the popular Cafe Mysore restaurant facing Maheshwari Udyan in Matunga (east) which prides itself as being the oldest Udipi restaurant of Mumbai. At around 4.30 p.m. Naresh was at his rental apartment on the third floor of Alankar Building opposite Sion Hospital when around 4.30 p.m. someone rang the doorbell. He was alone at home and he opened the door.
Soon six persons in civil uniform barged into the flat, flashed their ID cards and threatened him. They claimed that they were from the Mumbai crime branch and they had received information that Rs 17 crores of black money meant to be used for the Lok Sabha elections was stored in the flat. When Naresh denied that he had such a large amount of cash, they threatened to strip him nude and take him to his restaurant in the police jeep parked below the building and raid the place.
Naresh informed them that he had only about Rs 25 lakhs in cash which was the earnings from his restaurant. He said he earned about Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakhs daily from his restaurant which he brought home daily to his flat and at the end of the week he deposited the amount in the bank. He said the restaurant was owned by his mother Shanteri (75) who was currently in Bengaluru with his sister.
The dacoits then opened all the cupboards in the house and took out Rs 25 lakhs. They then said he were willing to do "mandvali" (compromise) and close the case if Naresh paid them two crore rupees. When he pleaded that he did not have such money, they left the flat after threatening him not to tell anyone about the incident. While leaving they returned Naresh's mobile phone which they had snatched from him earlier.
Naresh then lodged a complaint at Sion police station. Deputy commissioner Prashant Kadam of Zone IV immediately swung into action. He constituted several teams of cops, scanned the CCTV footage and soon enough traced the police jeep which was used in the crime.
Four persons, including a serving policeman, a retired cop, a "khabri" (informant) and two others, have been detained and they are being interrogated. What is shocking is the role of serving policemen and the use of a police jeep in executing the crime. Kadam told the FPJ that the investigation was still going on. The mastermind is believed to be one Jaiswal. The police are trying to find out who tipped off the dacoits about the cash lying in Naresh's flat. The hotel staff is likely to be called in for interrogation in this regard.
