Cuttack: Police investigation into an alleged robbery of Rs 27 lakh by unidentified goons has brought to the fore a conspiracy hatched by the victim himself.

Nalinikanta Tripathy, an employee of Durga Constructions Private Limited with its offices in Jagatpur, was coming out of an Allahabad Bank in the area with Rs 27 lakh in cash on March 31.

The police said the victim had told them two unknown culprits detained him and snatched his bag after assaulting him at that time.

The cops registered a case of robbery under Section 392 of the Indian penal Code on the basis of Tripathy's written complaint.

Jagatpur police station sub-inspector Gyana Ranjan Mohapatra, who was heading the investigation, first examined CCTV footage from State Bank of India, HDFC and Allahabad Bank branches at Jagatpur from where the Tripathy had encashed three cheques of Rs 9 lakh each.

The police said the victim's statement and movement after the robbery, as seen in CCTV footage of the banks, "awoke suspicion".

The medico-legal opinion in respect of the injuries he had suffered "established that the injuries were self inflicted". The victim was then interrogated where he revealed that the entire mugging was fake and pre-planned by him, said Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh.

"Tripathy disclosed that he had hired Ranjit Kumar Sethy, 32, of his village to carry out his plan," Singh said.

The cops later recovered Rs 8 lakh that was concealed buried behind his office in a plastic bag and Rs 18.48 lakh from Sethy, Biswajit Tripathy and Nalini's brother Sarat Kumar Tripathy from his native Harirajpur village in Nemala police limits in Cuttack district.

"The four of them disclosed that they had spent the remaining Rs 52,000 on merriment," Singh said.

A case under sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered by the police with all four being named as accused.