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Hyderabad: About 24 hours after daring Bollywood style gold heist here, Telangana police traced the black Scorpio used in the crime near Gulbarga in the neighbouring state in Karnataka.
The police are yet to trace and arrest the five robbers behind the heist at a Muthoot Finance branch on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Police said five armed robbers reached the Muthoot Finance branch in RC Puram in a black Scorpio around 9.15am. They entered the branch claiming to be CBI officials, a senior police official said.
“First one of them dressed as a traffic cop went inside and said officers from the CBI have arrived. Then another one posing as a CBI official said they were there for a search after receiving information that people were converting black money into gold post demonetisation,” Cyberabad CP Sandeep Shandilya said.
The modus operandi seemed very similar to the plot of 2013 movie Special 26 starring Akshay Kumar where a group posing as CBI officials raids a jewellery store in Mumbai. The film itself was inspired by the 1987 Opera House Heist at a Mumbai branch of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) Jewellers.
Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma said, “We are investigating the case in real time. Seven teams are on the job. We have released sketch of the suspects. CCTV footage along the highways is being checked for their movement.”
While leaving, the robbers also took with them the CCTV system at the branch. Employees and eyewitnesses told the police that they had dressed like officials and spoke Hindi and English.
Police suspect that an organized gang is behind the heist. Telangana police is also probing a similar robbery that took place in October in Karnataka.