The Coimbatore City Police on Friday arrested a five-member-gang which allegedly robbed 50-carat diamonds and `1 lakh cash, besides other valuables from a Kerala-based businessman, within 24 hours of the incident.
According to the police, the trader, A Manoj (40) a resident of Thrissur in Kerala, was doing gold and diamond business with jewellery shops in Coimbatore.
Manoj had come to the city on Wednesday to collect `1.5 lakh from S Prakash (27) of Sukrawarpet, a goldsmith having a workshop on Big Bazaar Street.
Around 9.30 pm on Wednesday, Prakash took Manoj on his motorcycle to Kovaipudur, saying he would get the money from his friend Pradeesh Kumar.
When they reached VLB Nagar, two persons waylaid them, assaulted Manoj and robbed 50 carat diamonds worth `21 lakh, `1 lakh cash and his mobile phone.
In this regard, Manoj lodged a complaint with the Kuniamuthur Police on Thursday.
However, during the investigations, the needle of suspicion pointed towards Prakash, and they conducted inquiries with him.
In the course of interrogation, it was revealed that Prakash was aware that Manoj used to carry huge amounts of diamond, gold and cash, whenever he visited Coimbatore.
As such, Prakash had planned to rob Manoj and approached his friends P Pradeesh Kumar (28) of Selvapuram, N Ram alias Ramamurthy (41) of Saravanampatty, S Saravanan (43) from Kuniamuthur and A Abuthahir (46) also from Kuniamuthur to execute the plan. The plan was allegedly masterminded by Ramamurthy.
Accordingly, Prakash took the diamond trader to Kovaipudur, after convincing him that he would get him the money from Pradeesh Kumar.
As per the plan, Saravanan and Abuthahir, who were waiting at VLB Nagar, assaulted Manoj and robbed him of the diamonds.
Kuniamuthur police arrested all five members of the gang on Friday and recovered the valuables and cash from them. All the accused were remanded.