CHENNAI:Police have claimed to have solved a 3-kg gold heist here that remained pending for over one-and-a-half years, following the interrogation of a burglar arrested in a similar case in Pudukottai district recently.
According to police, the role of Gopalakrishnan (35), a resident of Orukkur village in Pudukottai, in the burglary at Santhosh Jewellery on Paper Mills Road at Sembium on January 7, 2014, came to light when he was interrogated in connection with a 19-kg gold heist at the City Union Bank branch in Pudukottai.
Subsequently, the Sembium police secured his custody from the Tiruchy Central Prison through a Pudukottai court and interrogated Gopalakrishnan, who confessed to the crime.
Gopalakrishnan had drilled his way into the shop through an abandoned pathway. Wearing a skimask and gloves, he had wiped out the shop of its entire contents, after damaging all the five CCTV cameras along with the data recorders.
However, he was caught by the Pudukottai police, who mounted surveillance on him after word spread about his new-found wealth.
After the Pudukottai police managed to extract information about his past heists, including the Perambur strike, Sembium police secured his custody.
They then verified the ledgers of various pawn shops where he had pledged the jewellery from 2014 till date.
About half a kg gold and Rs 3 lakh were recovered from his possession and Gopalakrishnan was remanded back to judicial custody.
Almost all sections of the media reported the Pudukottai case, in which 37 kg of gold was recovered by an alert patrol cop who intercepted Gopalakrishnan when the latter was fleeing with the booty.
Gopalakrishnan, however, managed to give the slip to the policeman after abandoning the bag containing the jewellery.
It was later found out that the bank had indeed lost 19 kg of gold which Gopalakrishnan had already decamped with.
Gopalakrishnan began leading a posh life besides investing his ill-gotten money in various sectors including the hospitality industry.
His luck ran out after his involvement in the bank robbery case.