CHENNAI : In a daring heist, a four-member gang — posing as a team of Income Tax officials — duped a grocery store owner and decamped with Rs 43 lakh from his house at Ennore on Monday.The victim Kanagaraj, a native of Thoothukudi and resident of Ennore for the last 32 years, had opened his grocery store at 7 am as usual. An office-bearer in the local traders’ association, he lived with his wife Jaya and son Rupan, an MBA graduate, in the house behind the store. His daughters were married, with one settled in Tambaram and the other in the US, ACP (Ennore) S Selavarasu told Express.‘Four-member Team’Around 7.30 am, a car stopped in front of his house and four men got out. The driver stayed in the vehicle. Dressed in white shirts and black trousers, the men appeared to be around 40 years of age. One of them was short and wore a cap, Kanagaraj later told the police. They claimed that they were Income Tax officials. When Kanagaraj demanded their identity cards, they brandished some IDs. The quartet shut the door and windows of the house and demanded that the grocer furnish information about the cash in his possession and threatened him with arrest. Kanagraj led them to the safe, where there was Rs 43 lakh in cash and about 100 sovereigns of gold jewellery. The ‘I-T sleuths’ took only the cash and asked him to collect the money from the I-T office after submitting an account. They also gave him a cell phone number, the police officer said. After they left, Kanagaraj called the number but found it ‘switched off’. Suspecting that he had been duped, he called his son Rupan, who was in Bangalore, and told him about the incident. Rupan, in turn, called the I-T department, which said they had not conducted any searches at his house.Genuine I-T NoticeAt 8.35 am, Kanagaraj called the police control room, which relayed his complaint to the Ennore police station and senior police officials, including DCP (Madhavaram) S Lakshmi and ACP Selvarasu, arrived at the scene. Inquiries showed why the grocer had been so easily deceived. “Only two months ago, Kanagaraj received a notice from the I-T department after his bank accounts showed a `2 crore transaction,” ACP Selvarasu said. “He was asked to meet the joint commissioner-investigation in connection with the transaction.”The trader later met I-T officials along with his auditor and the matter was settled. To his shock, when ‘I-T men’ descended on him on Monday, he thought it was a raid, the probe showed. But, he thought that he could work out another settlement and went in pursuit of the ‘IT sleuths’ on his bike, but could not find them, the ACP said. Asked about the source of the Rs 43 lakh, the grocer told police that he had accumulated the amount through savings, loans, real estate business and pledging of jewels to build a departmental store next to his shop. Registering a case under Sections 419 (Impersonation) and 420 (Cheating) of IPC, the Ennore police are closely questioning the family members, including Rupan, who has since returned from Bangalore, neighbours and business associates. They suspect that the heist must have been the handiwork of persons known to the grocer. “The house is not visible from the road,” the ACP said. “Only known persons, who also had information about the presence of the cash in the house, could have gone there,” he added.
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