THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The rural police on Monday arrested the key accused and two other persons involved in the Pallipuram gold heist case in which assailants attacked and robbed a jewellery outlet owner of nearly 100 sovereigns of the yellow metal in April.
The arrested persons are Kazhakoottam native Jasim Khan, 28, who is the key accused and leader of the quotation gang, and his accomplices Ajmal, 25, of Mangalapuram and Muhammad Razi, 23, of Thonnakkal. With this, a total of 20 people have been arrested in the case.The trio was taken into custody in a joint operation under the Mangalapuram police and the Thiruvananthapuram rural shadow police squad. Jasim is accused in several cases, including robbery and attempt to murder, registered in Kazhakkoottam, Mangalapuram, Kallambalam, Varkkala and Kollam police stations.
He would always surrender in court a few months after committing a crime. Anticipating this, a police team was deployed on the Attingal court premises and he eventually landed in police net. The police said the accused persons went into hiding in Goa after looting the gold.
“It was Jasim who distributed the stolen gold to various gang members and sold it as collateral. Police have got clear information from him about 60 sovereigns of gold that is to be found and can seize it after interrogating him in detail. Santosh, a Chennai resident who masterminded the heist, and his two accomplices were arrested by the special investigation team two days ago. Based on the information they provided the main accused has been nabbed,” said a senior police official.
So far, nearly 40 sovereigns of gold and `73,000 in cash have been recovered. Six cars and two bikes have also been seized and submitted in court. A special probe team led by Attingal DySP Suneesh Babu and Crime Branch DySP M K Zulfikar nabbed the accused on the instructions of rural district police chief P K Madhu. The arrested persons have been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days Sampath Surve, who ran a jewellery shop at Neyyattinkara, was hacked by a sword and looted by the gang at Pallipuram on April 9. The gang had tailed Sampath for nearly two months as part of planning the crime.
The police had earlier arrested the 17-member gang that carried out the heist.