MANGALURU: The Mangaluru city police team has recovered 18.314 kg of gold and Rs 3.80 lakh cash stolen from the Kotekar Vyavasaya Seva Sahakari Sangha at KC Road under Ullal station limits on the outskirts of Mangaluru.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Mangaluru city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal said that the robbers had planned the heist six months ago. The accused Murugan, Kannan Mani met in Taloja jail and conspired with a local associate Shashi Thevar, the main conspirator who is still on the run.
"The robbery occurred at the bank on January 17 between 1 pm to 1.20 pm when a group of four masked and armed individuals, wielding pistols and knives went up to the bank premises and looted cash and gold jewellery. Certain lapses on the part of the bank including CCTV cameras under maintenance and the master locker left open helped the offenders," commissioner said.
The commissioner spoke about how the team didn't have any lead in the beginning but later formed several teams for the case.
"The first lead was CCTV footage from Hejamady when the Fiat car was stopped to change the number plate and managed to nab the culprits. In most of the cases, recovery is difficult if there is a delay in nabbing the accused. Without recovery, finding the accused would be an injustice to the gold depositors and we managed to recover almost the entire property lost in this case," the commissioner added.
Four persons were arrested. Kannan Mani, aged 36 was arrested from Tiruvannamalai while Murugan D Thevar, aged 36 and Yoshva Rajendran, aged 35 were arrested from Amba Samadrumam and M Shanmuga Sundaran, aged 65(father of Murugan) was arrested on January 23. "Our team travelled almost 2,700 kilometres to chase and find the culprits and we had sent a few personnel who could communicate in Tamil," the commissioner added.
Commissioner said that the accused Shashi, Murugan and others conducted reconnaissance thrice between August and November last year to plan entry, exit routes and logistics and they decided to carry out the robbery on any Friday as locals(Muslims who are the majority in the area) would be occupied with Friday Namaz.
"One of the main conspirators Shashi Thevar who is said to be a local had planned to rob the Kotekar bank where the security system was weak. Shashi had shown them the locality. There were few accused from North India in the robbery gang who are still on the run," he said.
"Murugan and three associates left Tilak Nagar in Mumbai on January 16 in a Fiat car while Kannan Mani and another accused travelled by train. The car number plates were changed twice - at Shiroor Gate with a fake Maharashtra registration and at Surathkal with a fake KA O4 registration. Later all the accused assembled in Surathkal and headed to the bank, the commissioner revealed.
The accused waited near the bank from 12.26 pm for the Friday prayers to start. Murugan stayed in the car while Kannan waited near the ground floor close to the gate and others committed the offence.
"After the robbery, Murugan and Yoshva escaped to Kerala via Talapady check post in the Fiat car while the three accused travelled to the Mangaluru Central Railway station by auto and another person by bus. They wanted to dispose of the stolen property in Mumbai," commissioner revealed.
According to the commissioner, the bank had 29kg of gold deposited and out of it, 10kg of gold was untouched by the gang.
As per the police, based on detailed mahazar done at the bank, 18.6743 kg gold and Rs 11.67 lakhs cash were stolen and the police could recover 18.314 kg of gold and Rs 3.80 lakh cash. Police have recovered two pistols, three live rounds, two machetes and a Fiat car and a fake number plate.
Murugan, who was involved in a popular finance company robbery in Mumbai has three previous cases against him including one under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999).
Yoshva was also involved in the finance company robbery and a case in Gujarat earlier while Kannan Mani has one case registered against him at Tilak Nagar station in Mumbai.