THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The rural police have arrested four people in connection with the gold heist that happened at Pallippuram last Friday. The arrested were identified as Nebin and Ansar, both natives of Kottaramthuruthu, Faisal of Velloor and Noufal of Perumathura. All of them are aged between 24 and 34, and barring Noufal, they were directly involved in looting 100 sovereigns of gold from Sampath Surve — a Maharashtra-born jewellery owner — who was transporting it to a retail shop, the police said.
Thiruvananthapuram Rural District Police Chief (DPC) P K Madhu said three of the arrested were part of the gang that attacked Sampath and his associates before fleeing with the gold. Noufal had assisted the culprits in selling a part of the booty, he said.
The DPC said CCTV visuals revealed that one of the cars used for waylaying the jewellery owner was spotted in the locality after the incident which suggested that the culprits were not outsiders. “Two cars were used for the crime. After abandoning the abducted associates of Sampath at Vavara Ambalam, one of the cars took a bylane and then returned to the highway near the crime spot. Thus we gauged that the culprits could be from places near Pallippuram as outsiders won’t be able to navigate these bylanes,” he said.
The police made a list of people from the locality who had criminal antecedents and quizzed the suspects.
“When we summoned them for questioning, some of them simply vanished from the place. Their close contacts too went into hiding. We traced those people and questioned them. Some of them spilled the beans and thus we could crack the case,” the officer said.
The police statement said a part of the booty and cash to the tune of `73,000 were seized from the arrested. Madhu said more than seven people, who took part in the crime, have been identified and efforts are on to locate them. Some of them are feared to have fled to other states, he added.
The officer said the robbery was a handiwork of criminals from two gangs, who travelled in two cars. Both cars were found tailing Sampath from Kazhakoottam. It’s still unclear as to how the gangs got to know about the movement of gold. The officer said this mystery can be answered only after questioning the rest of the group members. “We are yet to arrest the key operator, who organised everything. He reportedly has a dozen criminal cases against him. Only he can reveal the finer details of the operation,” the officer added.