Punjagutta police recover missing bag in hours, U.S. doctors all praise for them

Indian-born US citizens, Prasad and his sister Vani, both in their late 60s, are all praise for Hyderabad police, thanks to the latter’s swift action in securing back their missing bag within hours.

A nephrologist, Prasad and his sister are in the city for past few days on a personal trip. Gearing up to fly back to America in next two days, the siblings stopped by Chutney restaurant at Punjagutta on Thursday morning.

While paying the bill the siblings realised their bag containing valuable documents and ₹50,000 was missing. Panicked, they searched every part of the eatery but cold not find it. Not sure if someone lifted the bag while they were eating or they forgot it in the cab in which they came there from Jubilee Hills, they rang up retired police officer Rajeshwar Rao.

He alerted Punjagutta Assistant Commissioner of Police P. Muralikrishna who assigned the task to Detective Inspector B. Venkat. “Actually, Venkat was already transferred and supposed to be relieved today. But took up the last minute challenge rushing to the restaurant,” ACP Muralikrishna said. After thoroughly examining the CCTV footage at the eatery, the officer surmised the bag was not taken away from there.

Suspecting that the siblings could have forgotten the bag in the cab, the Inspector called the driver having collected his number from the doctor’s phone. “The cab driver initially feigned innocence and eventually switched off his phone,” the ACP narrated. The investigators traced another mobile phone number of the driver based on his car registration number which was mentioned in the app and called him again.

This time the driver could no more play gimmicks. He said that he found the bag in the car and promptly returned it to the police, having initially said that four other customers who later booked the cab could have taken it. The doctor siblings thanked the police profusely but preferred not to lodge any complaint. No First Information Report was issued.