Trio foxes angadia's Mumbai and Hyderabad offices, makes off with Rs 50 lakh; 1 held

MUMBAI: Nearly two months after a 30-year-old man, along with two accomplices, orchestrated a Rs 50 lakh robbery by creating confusion between the Mumbai and Hyderabad branches of an angadia firm, L T Marg police tracked him down to his hometown in Pali in Rajasthan and arrested him.
Police managed to recover Rs 5.5 lakh from the accused, Mithalal Rathod alias Dinesh, a school dropout.
The angadia firm has branches at Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi. In his police complaint, the manager of the angadia firm said that on April 3, he got a WhatsApp call from a person who identified himself as Jeetu, a jeweller from Hyderabad. "Jeetu told the manager that he will give Rs 50 lakh to the Hyderabad branch and in return, one of his employees in Mumbai would collect the same amount from the Zaveri Bazaar branch. Jeetu told the complainant that his employee would contact him. A few minutes later, Dinesh called up the complainant and said he was reaching his office soon," said a police officer.
Around 4.30pm, Rathod reached the Zaveri Bazaar office and asked about the money. The complainant called up his colleague at the Hyderabad branch and asked if the money had been deposited there. The Hyderabad office then called up Jeetu, who said his employee was collecting money from different jewellers and would reach in sometime. A few minutes later, Jeetu's 'employee' called up the Hyderabad office and said he had arrived. "At the same time, the complainant called up the Hyderabad office and was told that Jeetu's man said that he has reached their office. As it was rush hour, the complainant got confused on whether the man had arrived at the Hyderabad branch or the money had been handed over. Assuming that the money had been deposited, the Mumbai office employees handed over Rs 50 lakh to Rathod," said the officer.
After collecting the money, Rathod hired a taxi and went to Dadar.
Later, when the complainant again called up his Hyderabad office, he was shocked to learn that they had not received the Rs 50 lakh. He immediately called up Rathod, but his phone was switched off. "By then, Rathod had taken a local train for Borivli and from there, took another train for Rajasthan. He vanished with the money," said the police officer.
A team, led by senior police inspector Jyoti Desai and assistant police inspector Sushilkumar Vanjari, investigated the matter. Police collected Rathod's SIM card details and found it was registered in the name of a woman. "With the help of technical intelligence, we arrested him from Rajasthan and recovered Rs 5.5 lakh," said Vanjari. Police are looking for two more accused, including Jeetu.