THRISSUR: The Chalakkudy police arrested the goons behind the movie-style gold theft on the National Highway at Potta by faking an accident. One of the gangsters included in the case has been identified as the brother of Thadiyantavida Naseer, the infamous recruiter to an Islamic terror outfit. The police arrested four people, who were considered the brain behind the entire gold theft on Sunday. Shuhail, 35, Shanavas, 25, and Manaf, 22, from Thayyil in Kannur district and Chakkalakkal Sujith, 24, from Pulpally in Wayanad were the arrested of which Shuhail is the brother of Naseer.
According to the police, “Shuhail, a Gulf-returnee, with the support of local youngsters traced the gold smugglers in the airport and has been indulging in tipping them off to gangs of goons across the state. He is also alleged to have robbed such smuggled gold and divided it among the gang members,” said an officer.
It was on September 15 the movie-style incident happened. Two people were taking gold from Nedumbassery airport to Koduvally in a car when they were hit by another car at Potta. The gangsters faking the accident blocked the car in which the gold was being smuggled and took control of it.
Later, after threatening the smugglers, the gold was robbed. Though seven others who helped in faking the accident had already been arrested by the police, it took over a month to trace out the brain behind it.
According to the police, the gang fled to different parts of Tamil Nadu and was absconding for about a month. Later, when Shuhail and team tried to sell the gold in Kannur, the police caught them red-handed. Around 1.5 kg gold was reported to be robbed by the gang as per the complaint.
“Since the members of the gang were not familiar with each other, it was difficult to trace out the leader. The investigations at the airport surroundings, hotels, etc. led to the information on the involvement of a gang from the northern part of the state behind the theft. The same gang attempted another theft at Karipur airport which led to tracing out Shuhail and team,” said the police.
The team of police under the special instruction of Rural SP M K Pushkaran and led by Chalakkudy DySP C R Santhosh conducted the probes for over a month in and outside the state. All the four who were arrested have been accused of other charges, including attempt to murder, in various police stations, while further probe into their background is progressing.