In a sensational robbery, around 1500 brand new iPhones worth almost Rs 12 crore have been stolen from a container truck in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district.
Investigations into the robbery have established the role of a securityman Warish, who is untraceable since the August 15 incident.
Surprisingly, Warish, who hails from Palwal in Haryana, was hired by the company without any police verification. The driver of the truck, who alleged that he was drugged and subsequently tied up, also belongs to the same Mewat region of Haryana and Rajasthan.
The incident happened as the container truck carrying a consignment of the brand new iPhones from the manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu was passing through Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni, Narsinghpur and Sagar districts on its way to northern India.
The truck driver alleged that on the night of August 15, while the truck was passing through MP, the securityman accompanying him boarded someone else on the truck, saying that he was known to him. The driver alleged that the tea he consumed later was drugged.
The driver subsequently fell unconscious and on regaining consciousness found himself tied with ropes inside the driver’s cabin.
Later, it was found that out of the 4000 brand new iPhones, around 1500 were missing from the truck.
The driver reported the matter to the Lakhnadon police in Seoni district, but couldn’t get help. He later reported the matter at the Bandari police station in Sagar district, but an FIR wasn’t lodged.
The robbery was subsequently reported by the company’s senior officials to MP police’s higher-ups, after which three staff members of Bandari police station, including the police station in-charge, an assistant sub inspector and a constable were attached to the district police line for not acting in a timely manner. The FIR in the matter was finally registered after a fortnight on Saturday.
According to the Sagar district police superintendent Vikas Kumar Sahwal, eight teams have been constituted to crack the crime at the earliest. “The ongoing investigations have established the role of the untraceable securityman, who surprisingly was hired without any prior police verification. A case of burglary has been registered against the securityman and investigations are underway,” he said.
