Gold ornaments worth about Rs.50 lakh, two cars seized

Mandya: Nagamangala Police, on Aug.27, have arrested an extortionist, wanted in numerous cases of extortion in Nagamangala and Bellur Police Station limits in Mandya district and have recovered gold ornaments worth about Rs.50 lakh which he had extorted from elderly women besides seizing a Maruti 800 and a Hyundai car from him.

Disclosing this at a press meet here this morning, SP Shivaprakash Devaraj said that the accused was known with various names such as B. Somashekar, Soma, Somashekarachari, Surya, Suresh, Nagaraj and Lokesh and is a native of Timber Yard Layout, Gudadahalli in Bengaluru and presently residing in Henjagodanahalli, Arasikere town in Hassan. He further said that Somashekar used to target elderly woman and in the pretext of dropping them in his Maruti 800 car, he used to take the victims to deserted place, rob them of their valuables and throw them out of the car.

Following his arrest, the Police have solved 23 cases — one case each in Tumkur Town, Kyathsandra, Jayanagar, Kunigal and Turuvekere Police Stations in Tumakuru district, two cases each in Nagamangala Town (Mandya), Tumakuru Rural and Gubbi  (Tumakuru) and Shravanabelagola (Hassan) Police Stations, three cases each in Hebbur (Tumakuru) and Tavarekere (Ramanagaram) Police Stations and four cases in Bellur (Mandya) Police Station. Apart from the above, the accused is involved in 22 cases of extortion.

A total of 45 cases of extortion have been traced and the Police have recovered gold ornaments weighing about 1.621 kg and have also seized a Maruti 800 car used for the crime and also a Hyundai car.

Mandya SP Shivaprakash Devaraj and Nagamangala Sub-Division Dy.SP H.N. Dharmendra, who congratulated Nagamanga Circle Inspector D.P. Dhanraj, Bellur Police SI H.P. Sharath Kumar, Nagamangala Rural Police SI B. Chidananda and staff Ramesh, N.S. Somashekar, B. Aneef, B.H. Indrakumar, Ompradeep, B.K. Kirankumar and drivers Chandra and Ravi, presented the team with cash rewards.