COIMBATORE: A four-member gang led by a 72-year-old man was arrested in connection with a robbery of around 30 sovereigns of gold from a farmhouse at Senjerimalai village by Sulur police on Tuesday.
The accused have been identified as G Ayyanar alias Meesai Ayyanar (72), his younger brother Ezhumalai alias Raja (50) from Nethaji Street in Pandiyan Nagar, Gudiyatham, R Murugan alias Ramu (55) of Davanagere district in Karnataka and S Ramalingam alias Rajesh (42) from A Sathanur near Ulundurpetttai in Kallakurichi district. One more suspect A Anjumalai alias Ezhumalai of Panayangal in Kallakurichi is on the lookout.
According to police, on February 13, a five-member gang entered the residence of D Nithyanandhi (52), a home-alone woman and threatened her at knife point. After tying her up and gagging her, they decamped with around 32 sovereigns of gold jewellery from the house.
After around a month-long investigation, a team led by Sulur Circle Inspector R Mathaiyan traced the identities of suspects and their whereabouts at Gudiyatham and arrested four of them, One more suspect is absconding. Police recovered 25 sovereigns of gold jewels and a car from the suspects and remanded them to prison on Tuesday.
A police officer said, "The investigation revealed that the gang was led by Ayyanar who is a vegetable vendor. They stole 24 kg of gold from a bank in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh in 2005 and in 2006 they stole around 47 kg of gold from another bank at Walayar in Kerala. After spending a few years in prison, they came out on bail. In 2011, the gang murdered a man when they had stolen 80 kg of gold from a jewellery shop in Panruti.
After spending four years in North India, the gang returned to Tamil Nadu in 2015 and burgled 90 sovereigns from a private gold loan firm in Kanchipuram. If it was a bank or finance firm they executed their plan by drilling a hole in its wall and if the place they targeted was a house, they used to just burgle the house. They had 15 cases filed against them from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka."
The officer added, "They used to target only bulk quantities of jewellery from shops, private finance firms dealing with gold ornaments, farmhouses and banks located in rural areas. They avoided mobile phones during their burglary attempts. They used to park their vehicles a few kilometers away and used to walk to their targeted places. Even if they committed the burglary at night, they would wait until morning and escape amid public movement."