Three officers of the Income Tax Department, one policeman and the amount of 15 lakhs. Their duty was to catch the black money, but the glitter of the notes blinded them. When they saw bundles of 500-rupee notes, they forgot their duty and committed the crime for which all four of them are now behind the bars of the jail. This crime story is of those four officers who looted 15 lakh rupees from a collection agent at knifepoint.
It was 16 December 2024 and it was around 8 pm. 31-year-old Mohammad Gaus, who lives in the Washermanpet area of Chennai and works as a collection agent, was carrying an amount of Rs 20 lakh to give to his boss. Gaus's boss Junaid Ahmed runs a CT scan center in the Vaniyambadi area of Chennai. Apart from this, he is also an office bearer in the Congress party.
When Mohammed Gaus was passing near the Government Multi-Super Specialty Hospital in the Anna Salai area, a uniformed policeman stopped him. He questioned Gaus about the bag and when he found out that it contained Rs 20 lakh, he asked for the documents related to the cash. While the conversation between the two was going on, this policeman called someone.
After some time another man arrived there and he introduced himself as an Income Tax Department officer. He also questioned Gaus and after some time two people arrived there in a government car. They also introduced themselves as Income Tax Department officers and forcibly made Gaus sit in their car. They said that they were taking him to the Income Tax Department office, but it was not so.
Instead of taking Gaus to the Income Tax office, these four took him to a deserted place near Egmore Children's Hospital. Here they showed Gaus a knife and snatched Rs 15 lakh from him. They left the remaining Rs 5 lakh with Gaus and fled from the spot. Gaus was very frightened by this incident and reached his home in a distraught state. The next day he went to the Triplicane police station and told the officers the whole story.
On hearing Gaus's complaint, the officers went into a tizzy. CCTV cameras of the places related to the incident were scanned and it was found that the uniformed man who stopped Gaus was Special Sub Inspector Raja Singh posted at Triplicane Police Station. The other three accused were identified as Income Tax Inspector Damodaran, Income Tax Officer Pradeep and Income Tax Superintendent Prabhu.
The four accused were tracked through CCTV footage and were immediately arrested. During interrogation, they confessed to dividing the looted money among themselves and using a government vehicle to carry out the crime. The looted amount of Rs 15 lakh was also recovered from the house of Income Tax Superintendent Prabhu.
Investigation revealed that the three arrested Income Tax officers are associated with the Income Tax Department of Nungambakkam. A case has been registered against all four under relevant sections and they have been sent to jail. A senior officer investigating the case said that Raja Singh was the mastermind of this entire game. Now it is being investigated whether these people have committed any such crime before.
