KOCHI: On May 9, 2019, two men on a motorcycle robbed 20kg of gold worth more than Rs 6 crore after smashing open the SUV in which nuggets of the yellow metal were being transported to a refining firm at Edayar near Eloor in Kochi.
The gang attacked the car when it approached the front gate of CGR Metalloys Pvt Ltd at 9.57pm. Smashing open the window panes, the duo sprayed pepper on the four employees inside, before fleeing with the nuggets.
The robbery, which reminded people of a Bollywood crime thriller, left the police perplexed, as the robbers had not left any loopholes to trace them. Since the number plates of the bikes used by the robbers were tampered with, the probe hit a dead-end.
However, sheer intuition made the officers suspect that an insider was involved. They knew that only a company insider, who was clued in on the firm’s business, could pull off such a heist.
“We didn’t have any suspects initially, nor any clues. We didn’t even know where to begin the probe,” recalls the then Aluva SHO S Saleesh, who spearheaded the investigation.
“As we suspected that an insider was involved, we decided to track all the staffers, including those who had left the firm.”Officers started collecting data on all the employees. Their location details were also gathered using their mobile numbers. Then came the breakthrough.
“We found that Bipin George, a Thodupuzha native who was a former driver of the refining firm, was near the premises of the crime scene on the day of the incident,” says Saleesh.“With this information, we zoomed in on him. We analysed his background and call details. It was confirmed that he had made numerous calls to other people who were near the firm on the day of the incident.”
Bipin, the alleged mastermind, carried out the robbery with seven others. “We apprehended four others from Munnar a few days after his arrest,” adds Saleesh.
To evade the police, the robbers had used walkie-talkies for communication. They had made calls only to Bipin.
Even as the probe team got a major breakthrough, the file was later handed over to the Crime Branch, considering its scale.
Eight people have been arrested in connection with the case, but only 1.6kg of the looted gold — which the accused sold to a jeweller in Kottayam — has been recovered so far.