SAMBALPUR: In a major boost to the investigation into the Rs 20 crore Mannapuram Gold Finance robbery, Sambalpur police has brought Subodh Singh, mastermind of the heist, on a seven-day remand.
The 42-year-old Singh, an interstate criminal, was operating his network from Presidency Jail in Kolkata. His remand comes weeks after Sambalpur police arrested a key accused, Uttam Paswan, from Guwahati. Paswan, who allegedly coordinated the entire heist, was arrested on February 5.
Now with Singh in remand, Sambalpur police hopes to crack the mastermind’s criminal network, which spanned across states and involved contract killings, murders, and a spate of extortions.
According to police, the criminal perfected the art of gold heists across multiple states, including the Muthoot Gold Finance loot, which took place in Sambalpur in 2017.
Addressing mediapersons here on Saturday, IG Himanshu Lal said the interstate criminal network would be deconstructed as police would extract crucial information about the looted gold, his associates, as well as modus operandi
Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo said Singh created a strong criminal network across several states. Despite being lodged in jail for a murder case, he continued to run an active group of criminals which operate in different states and execute as per his plans.
Singh’s list of crimes included at least 28 major offences across Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh.
The gold heists started in 2016 in Nagpur where he looted 30 kg of the yellow metal, followed by another one in Jaipur in 2017 involving 28 kg. Another 30 kg robbery in Barrackpore was reported in 2018. Of the 28 crimes, around 10-12 were gold heists, five were murders, and the rest involved attempts to murder using firearms and extortion.
“Singh had found a way to dispose of the looted gold in Nepal using the Bihar border. He got a good value for the yellow metal and used the illegal weapons manufacturing corridor to his advantage,” Bhamoo said.
With Singh now in seven-day police remand, police are hopeful of making a headway in the investigation, particularly in tracing the missing gold and identifying more operatives linked to his criminal syndicate.
Singh is accused of orchestrating the January 3 heist at Mannapuram Gold Finance office in Budharaja, Sambalpur where around 30 kg of gold and cash worth over Rs 4 lakh were looted.
Earlier, on January 16, police had nabbed Pankaj Paswan and Ajaya Paswan, both from Hajipur in Bihar in connection with the case.