VISAKHAPATNAM: Around one-and-a-half years after a robbery incident, the Visakhapatnam police nabbed three persons, who made good with 6 kg gold from a jewellery shop at Tagarapuvalasa in broad daylight on July 23, 2015, in the city on Tuesday. The police recovered around 1.3 kg of gold from them. Altogether 13 members were involved in the robbery.
They arrested have been identified as Bimmo Pradhan, Eswar Pradhan and Rajapu Venkatesh. Among the remaining 10 members, Odisha police arrested five on Jan 1, 2017 who have been identified as Sarangi Pradhan, Dasu Srinu, Karunakar Sabat, Anant Sahu, and Prabin Nikim at Purbakota village in Jajpur district in Odisha. The accused are to be brought to Vizag on transit warrant.
Addressing newsmen here on Tuesday, DCP(Crimes) T Ravi Kumar Murthy said that the main accused in the case A Subba Rao of Narsipatnam, ex-offender, is still at large and the names of others cannot be disclosed now.
Recalling the incident, police said that the robbery occurred on July 23, 2015, when Srikanth, the owner of Sai Padma Jewellers at Tagarapuvalasa, kept his bag containing 6 kg of gold ornaments near the sales counter and went inside to check certain things after opening the outlet. Right at the moment, three members of the gang, who already conducted a recce, gained entry into the shop and made good with the property.
On the investigation, the police said that it took almost six months to get the first lead. After that, the police zeroed in on A Subbarao of Narsipatnam and then on other accused. As many as nine teams have been constituted to investigate the case, which saw many hurdles all through the period.
It was learnt that some police teams had gone to Purbakota, a hilly terrain, where they were attacked by several gangs.
Though the gang was involved in many offences, they were arrested only now. After nabbing the eight, the police recovered around 1.33 kg of gold apart from 7.5 kg silver and Rs 1.8 lakh cash.