MANGALURU: A special police team consisting of personnel from city crime branch (CCB) and Urwa police station on Monday busted what city police chief T R Suresh said is a suspected case of gold hawala with recovery of Rs 1.75 crore in cash. The team nabbed two accused who allegedly robbed and kidnapped Manjunath Ganapathy Palankar, employee of Vaishnavi Jewellers on Car Street on October 23 when he returned to the city from Mumbai with the cash.The accused – Abdul Mannan, 29, resident of K B Road, Talapady, B C Road and Raji, 26, Padil, Mangaluru – and two others – forced Manjunath into a MUV when he alighted from a private bus at Lady Hill around 12.20pm on October 23 and forced him off the vehicle at Bajpe. Manjunath on October 26 lodged a complaint with Urwa PS that four persons accosted him, took away a backpack containing Rs 15 lakh in cash and two cell-phones.Noting that a special team headed by CCB and Urwa PS PIs Shantharam and Ravish S Nayak was set up to detect the case, Suresh told reporters that the team zeroed in on Mannan and Raji and recovered Rs 1.75 crore from their possession. The booty included 7250 currency notes of Rs 2000 denomination and 6000 notes of Rs 500 denomination, he said. “We believe Manjunath could have been carrying around Rs 2.35 crore with him,” he added.Recovery of this amount, second largest amount seized by city police, forced hand of its top brass to inform IT department. “We will also loop in Enforcement Directorate in this case,” he said. Manjunath and Santhosh Kudlekar, owner of Vaishnavi Jewellers, will automatically become part of the larger suspected gold hawala probe. Santhosh has an outlet in Mumbai and Manjunath was a regular courier of gold to and cash from there, he said.Noting that the duo were inspired by similar modus operandi used by infamous ‘Target Gang’ of Ullal in carrying out the heist, Suresh said remaining Rs 60 lakh is with four other accused for whom a manhunt has been launched. The accused have informed that this amount is with four others, he said. Given that the number of accused is now six, Suresh said section of dacoity as against robbery with kidnapping will now be incorporated into the FIR.

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