Three AP cops arrested for robbing man of Rs 27 lakh

Bengaluru, May 5 (DHNS): Three police constables from Andhra Pradesh, who posed as senior staffers of the Income Tax department and robbed a man of Rs 27.5 lakh in Bengaluru, were arrested by the City Central Division Police in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh.

The suspects were identified as B V Shekhar, 40, a resident of Estate Road in Muzzafarnagar, Kurnool district; K Sathyanarayan, 41, Kurnool and B Jayanna, 43, Adoni in Kurnool.

According to DCP (Central) Sandeep Patil, M Aleem Baig, a jeweller at Emmiganuru in Anantpur district in Andhra Pradesh, had sent his staffer Tipu Sultan with a bag containing Rs 27.5 lakh in cash to Bengaluru to purchase gold on March 12.

The three constables were tipped off about Sultan’s visit and followed him to Bengaluru. Sultan, who travelled to the City by a KSRTC bus, alighted near the Indian Oil Corporation petrol bunk near Mysore Bank Circle. Minutes later, Shekhar, Sathyanarayan and Jayanna, accosted Sultan and introduced themselves as senior staffers from the Income Tax department.

They claimed they had some information that Sultan was carrying unaccounted-for money and hence wanted to interrogate him. They took him in a car towards the airport, said the police.

They asked him a series of questions regarding the money, its source, why and where he wanted to buy gold and why his owner had not come to purchase the precious metal.

Later, they took Sultan to another spot and changed the car. They took Sultan’s bag and sometime later, abandoned him on the road and sped away, the police said.

Sultan approached the Halasuru Gate police and lodged a complaint in this regard. The police had some information that three persons had followed Sultan and they were from Kurnool. A special team was constituted to trace and arrest the suspects. Based on specific inputs, the trio was arrested and produced before the court, which remanded them in police custody.

The three policemen had availed themselves of a day’s leave only to commit the crime, the DCP said.

Kerala IPS officer caught copying in exam

Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 (DHNS): In an embarrassment to Kerala Police, a top officer was on Monday asked to leave an examination hall after he was caught copying from printed material he had taken into the hall.

Thrissur Range Inspector General of Police (IG) T J Jose was sent out of the hall by the invigilator during Mahatma Gandhi University’s off-campus LLM (Masters in Law) examination on a ‘Law of Crimes’ paper. Jose has been appearing for an ongoing series of examinations at the St Paul’s College in Kalamasseri near Kochi.

The invigilator — after noticing that the IG was copying from pages taken out of a guide-book — informed the college manager and vice-principal V J Peter about the incident and the official was asked to leave the hall. The invigilator was not aware of Jose’s official credentials when the IG was caught cheating.

The vice-principal said the IG left the hall without handing over the material from the guide-book. The officer denied reports that he was caught cheating and told reporters that he would also appear for the next examination scheduled on Tuesday.

He said he left the hall ahead of the deadline, after completing the examination. The examination was scheduled between 10 am and 1 pm.

In the wake of the incident, the Home Department asked Jose to go on leave.

Late in the evening, the college authorities sent a report on the incident to the university’s controller of examinations. “We have sent a report with details of the incident to the university through email,” vice-principal V J Peter told Deccan Herald.

The decision on barring Jose from appearing for the next examination will depend on the university’s action on the report.

Meanwhile, a television channel reported that attempts were also made to hush up the incident by marking the IG as an ‘absent’ candidate.

N Shanker Reddy, ADGP – North Zone, will conduct a preliminary investigation into the incident. MG University is also set to follow standard procedures and initiate a preliminary probe led by an official in the rank of Deputy Registrar.

“As per the report we received, the candidate left with his hall ticket and material used for the malpractice,” Babu Sebastian, vice-chancellor of the university, said in Kottayam.

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said action would be initiated based on the ADGP’s report. “The incident has brought shame to the state,” the minister said.