The Mangalore Police and the Special Squad of Bhubaneswar Police on Monday arrested wife and father-in-law of prime accused Santosh Das in connection with the sensational antique theft from Moodabidre Jain shrine.
Mangalore City Commissioner of Police Manish Karbiker who is personally supervising the case and camping in the State Capital confirmed that Digambar Mohanty, Santosh's father-in-law and wife Dipti, have been arrested.
The two were produced before a local court and Mangalore Police secured their transit for two days. The father-daughter duo is likely to be taken to Karnataka on Tuesday.
The joint team is believed to have laid its hands on more gold which was kept in a bank locker. Since Santosh, who is an inter-state smuggler, was operating multiple numbers of bank accounts, the investigators were on the trail of more precious metals stashed away in lockers. Reliable sources said another kilogram of gold has been seized by the police.
However, the prime accused Santosh continued to elude police. Karbiker said the cops are on the job. His sketch has already been released.
On Saturday, the joint team had recovered over 1 kg of gold in biscuit forms, three antique statutes and over ` two lakh in cash from Digambar's house.
The Jain shrine was burgled on June 6. At least 15 antique and priceless statues had been stolen by the thieves who had broken into the temple cutting open the iron shutters.