The men who allegedly raided businessman Suresh Wadhwa’s Bhowanipore home posing as CBI officers on Monday morning were aware of the layout of the four-storey building and where the Rs 30 lakh and jewellery that they took away had been kept, police said on Wednesday following the arrest of six more accused.
The six men have been arrested from Bankura, the police said.
Some of the gang members had recced the Bhowanipore pocket where the building is located a few days before the heist, officers said. The robbery plan was drawn up based on specific inputs, officers said after interrogating the six arrested.
The team knew the floors where the Wadhwas lived and how to leave the place, officers said.
On Tuesday night, officers of the detective department of Kolkata police raided parts of Bankura and rounded up the six accused. Two others had been arrested earlier on Tuesday in Haridevpur.
The six who were rounded up from Bankura are Noor Nabi, 26, Sekandar Alimuddin Dewan, 24, Suresh Khan, 33, Seikh Sabir, 28, Rajab Ali Gayen, 39, and Baban Karmakar, 40.
Barring Baban, the rest are residents of Bankura. Baban and Rajab Ali were picked up from a hotel in Barjora and the rest from Bishnupur, Gopinathpur and Kotulpur.
The six were produced in a city court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till December 23. The two arrested earlier — Rajan Chowdhury and Shantu Mollah — have also been remanded in police custody till December 23.
“The gang went to the Bhowanipore house in four cars. Ranjan had dressed up to look like a senior officer of the CBI. They had specific information about where the Rs 30 lakh and the jewellery they took away had been kept,” said a senior officer of the detective department.
The gang members allegedly told the Wadhwas, who run a sari business, that they would search the house — Roop Manor, 1/6 Rupchand Mukherjee Lane — following a complaint lodged against them with the agency.
“More people might have been involved in the crime. It seems the team acted on a tip-off from someone who was aware of the location of the cash and the jewellery,” the officer said.
Officers said one of the two accused who were first arrested had a criminal record. They did not specify which accused.
“The precision with which the team entered Roop Manor and left within nearly one and a half hours suggests the members were briefed clearly about their task,” an officer.
The Wadhwas have reportedly told the police that the men began their “search” around 8.15am and left at 9.40am.
Officers said they would question the accused over the next few days to tie the loose ends. A few areas have remained unexplained. Those include:
- Why did the team choose morning for the operation?
- The police have come to know that the Wadhwas have dogs. Why did neighbours the cops spoke to did not hear the dogs bark when the gang raided the house?
Officers said they were trying to check the antecedents of the accused and find out whether they had been a part of a similar fake CBI raid earlier.
