Dinesh Dureja, 54, a Chandigarh-based man, and eight others were arrested by Vile Parle police on February 20. Vile Parle police have recovered Rs 6.5 crore and arrested 13 men in connection with a case of robbery involving a man who was allegedly trying to launder Rs 12 crore to Canada through Mumbai-based angadias.
Two other accused, including an angadia, are on the run with rest of the money, the police said.
They have seized three vehicles used by the gang for committing the crime.
When contacted, Manjunath Shinge, DCP zone 8, confirmed the development.
Dinesh Dureja, 54, a Chandigarh-based man, and eight others were arrested by Vile Parle police on February 20. Dureja through his aides reportedly got in touch with Malad-based angadias to launder Rs 12 crore to Canada. Accordingly, Dureja reached Mumbai and stayed at a luxury hotel in Vile Parle (east). He allegedly took the money to an angadia named Patel in Malad diamond market.
However, the information reportedly got leaked and the accused, posing as police, robbed the money from Dureja, saying it was being seized on suspicion of being used for terror activities. The police said that angadias too were involved in the robbery. A social worker received information about the theft and alerted the police.
“We have intimated the income tax department. The magistrate court will decide what to do with the black money we have recovered,” said a police officer.
The same gang posing as Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers had allegedly robbed a garment businessman from Mumbai of Rs 70 lakh. An FIR was registered in this case on Wednesday.
Around 4 pm on February 11, the businessman, a resident of Wadala, was asked to come to Juhu, where he met one of the accused. Soon, two other accused posing as ATS officers reached the spot and took him in a car to Lokhandwala. Then they allegedly robbed him of Rs 70 lakh on the pretext of booking him in a false case.
After reading about the Vile Parle robbery in the news, the businessman approached the police. Shashikant Mane, senior police inspector of Juhu police station, confirmed the FIR but did not divulge details.