The police said that 705 g of gold jewellery and 4.3 kg of silver articles were recovered. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangment
The Avadi City Police on Friday said that they cracked the dacoity of ornaments worth ₹1.5 crore from a jewellery shop near Avadi by arresting two prime-accused at a village near Sanjore in Rajasthan.
The accused — Ashok Kumar from Bowerla village and Suresh from Bhinmal village — had led the gang that looted the shop, the police said. They were brought to the city on Friday.
Members of the gang, posing as customers, walked into the store owned by Prakash Pukkaram at Muthapudupet on April 15 when he was alone. One of them downed the shutters and two others brandished guns at him. When Prakash attempted to raise an alarm, the gang hit him on the head with a gun, tied him up, looted the jewellery and fled. The police suspected that six people were involved in the incident, and two of them had kept watch outside. They made away with gold jewellery and ₹5 lakh in cash. The stolen jewellery were pawned by over 100 people in the neighbourhood. The Avadi City Police Commissioner K. Shankar had constituted eight special teams to trace the suspects.
“We had clear CCTV footage, which we shared across the country. After analysing the background of the shopkeeper and studying the suspect’s physical features from the footage, it was suspected that the gang might have been from Rajasthan or Delhi. We then sent photographs of the suspects to our counterparts in Rajasthan, who were able to identify them. Subsequently, our team has arrested the two masterminds behind the offence,” Mr. Shankar told The Hindu.
After inquiring the men who were nabbed for harbouring the gang —Dinesh Kumar, 24; and Shetanaram 23, both natives of Rajasthan — further investigation was held, following which a special team arrested the two masterminds behind the dacoity.
Suresh has been living in and around Chennai, doing steel fabrication work.
The police said that 705 g of gold jewellery and 4.3 kg of silver articles were recovered from them. The Commissioner said that the identities of four more suspects would be established soon, and they would be nabbed as well.
