COIMBATORE: For a man whose need and aim were limited, the Jos Alukkas jewellery showroom had a treasure to offer, and without thinking much, he cherry-picked the ornaments as time was at his disposal, thanks to absence of security men around the showroom.
The details of the plot and ‘not-so-meticulous’ planning came to fore on Sunday night when the Coimbatore city police nabbed M Vijay alias Vijayakumar (24) who managed to flee, unnoticed, with 4.8 kg of ornaments on November 28.
Sources said Vijay, who hails from Devareddiyur near Harur in Dharmapuri, was picked up from Chennai on his way back from Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh, where he had gone allegedly to start his viradham for the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala. “He was brought to Coimbatore city on Monday morning, and gold ornaments weighing five sovereigns and 700 grams of silver articles were recovered from him,” they said.
Elaborating on the motive behind the burglary, police said Vijay was in need of Rs 3 lakh as he wanted to take a house, belonging to the uncle of one his former fellow-prisoners in Coimbatore prison Suresh from Anaimalai, on lease. “Initially, Vijay’s plan was to steal from a mobile shop on 100 Feet Road in Gandhipuram. In the wee hours of November 28 when he set out to hit his target, he had to change his plan as most of the shops in the area had high presence of security guards,” they said.
It was then that Vijay looked for a plan-B, and zeroed in on the jewellery outlet nearby. He reached the store through a hole on the side wall of the building and started searching for cash in the counter. “He stole the jewellery as cash was not there,” added the police.
“We have recovered 99 % of the stolen jewellery from Vijay and his family members. We couldn’t find around 180 grams of gold ornaments that were stolen. We have asked the store to furnish details of the valuables lost. After escaping from Anaimalai, Vijay had gone to his village and stole around gold ornaments weighing 22 sovereigns from a relative’s house,” said a senior police officer.
City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan told TNIE Vijay avoided using his mobile phone after he went missing from Dharmapuri. He then contacted his friends and relatives from different locations using different phones. “Using the link of places from where he had communicated, we traced his whereabouts in Chennai and managed to catch him. Both intelligence inputs and scientific investigation such as telecommunication tower location tracking helped us crack the case” he said.
City police had arrested Vijay’s wife Narmatha (23) a week ago and recovered 3.2 kg of ornaments. His mother-in-law Yogarani (48), a Sri Lankan refugee, was arrested for possessing 1.35 kg of the ornaments. She was residing in Thumbalahalli refugee camp in Dharmapuri. Though Vijay’s father M Munirathinam (50) died by suicide on December 6, he did not visit home.
Appeal to traders
Coimbatore city police met with owners and representatives of jewellery shops and mobile shops on Monday evening. V Balakrishnan, Commissioner of Police, advised them to install CCTV cameras, alarm systems and deploy young security guards