LUCKNOW: In a major breakthrough in a theft case at the house of Prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, the priest of Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi on Sunday, the police nabbed six miscreants along with stolen bounty including cash and jewellery.
While three miscreants were nabbed during an exchange of fire with a joint team of Bhelupur, Ramnagar police, and SOG in the Ramnagar area late on Tuesday night, the three others surrendered. Those who suffered gunshots in the operation included Rakesh Dubey, Golu Patel and Vicky Tiwari.
All six were all involved in the theft of jewellery worth over Rs 1 crore and cash worth Rs 3 lakhs from the house of Sankat Mochan Temple Mahant. Significantly, all the six had served at the Prof Mishra’s house in the past.
The miscreants had assembled to divide the stolen articles among themselves when the police surrounded them on the basis of a tip-off and nabbed them.
As per the police sources, the SOG, surveillance, and 11 police teams were continuously conducting raids in connection with the high profile theft case.
On late Tuesday night, the police team located the criminals in Kodopur (Ramnagar) following which SOG in-charge Manish Mishra, Ramnagar Inspector Raju Singh, and Inspector Bhelupur Gopal Ji Kushwaha started the combing.
When the police raided the location, the criminals, started firing indiscriminately on the police party. In retaliation, the cops injured three criminals and arrested six, while one managed to escape taking the advantage of darkness.
While the injured criminals were sent to the hospital, a search was still on across the district to arrest the absconding miscreant.
Meanwhile, during the encounter with criminals, the cops recovered weapons from them.
During initial questioning, the arrested accused admitted to their crime confessing that they had been planning a theft for several days. They executed the plan when Prof Mishra and his family were away in Delhi.
All the injured criminals belong to Kaimur Bhabua district in Bihar. The other three arrested included Dilip alias Bansi Chaubey of Bhagwanpur area of Varanasi, Atul Shukla of Fatehpur district, and Shani of Deoria district.
As per the sources close to Prof Mishra, the miscreants stole jewellery, century old diamond and rubies worth crores and cash worth lakhs from the residence of Prof Mishra at Tulsi Ghat on Sunday.
The CCTV footage clearly showed three masked criminals committing the act along with others involved in reconnaissance and assistance. The footage showed the three thieves leaving, carrying a red bag.
A case was registered at Bhelupur Police Station in this regard.
The Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal visited Tulsi Ghat on Tuesday afternoon. SOG teams were investigating every aspect.
After receiving information about the theft, various police teams conducted raids from Varanasi to Bihar since Monday night.
The Police Commissioner assured the Mahant that the stolen items would be recovered and all accused would be arrested soon.
The jewellery mentioned in the FIR included four bangles, two gold bracelets, two sets of Navratna bracelets, two diamond sets, two diamond bangles, five sets of diamond bracelets, an emerald set, a nine-ruby set (vintage), a ruby set, 11 pearl and gold sets (necklace, bangles, earrings), a bracelet-Huzurilal-2133 grams necklace, Meena earrings, two vintage gold bangles, 20 gold earrings, diamond, ruby, emerald, emerald ring and diamond, ruby and diamond ring, two gold bracelets, gold earrings, 21 bangles and bracelets, and 25-, 22-Swarovski jewellery.