The ‘kalyana mandapam’ inside the sprawling Armed Reserve Police Grounds glittered with gold on Wednesday.
It was not a wedding function but 36 kilograms of jewellery displayed by the city police. The jewels were robbed by a group of 25 persons from the Muthoot FinCorp’s Arapalayam branch on October 4.
The complaint was that a gang kidnapped the branch manager Balasubramanian and assistant manager Satish Kumar and, after detaining them in an undisclosed destination, took the keys of lockers from their possession and arrived at the branch with the aid of a former employee.
By diverting the attention of the security guards in the branch, the gang gained access and took away 37.400 kilograms of gold jewels worth around Rs.10 crore. They dispersed in different directions within about 30 minutes.
On receiving information, Commissioner of Police Sanjay Mathur visited the spot and formed special teams.
Deputy Commissioners of Police R. Thirunavukarasu and A. Jayalakshmi supervised the progress in the case. The special teams, which had police personnel and officers drawn from different wings in the police, including the special intelligence cell (SIC), were deployed to solve the crime, which posed a big challenge to the department.
The moment the team located the brain behind the crime and identified him as Selvin, a resident of Railway Colony here, the case was headed for a solution.
Based on his confession, in the first phase, the police recovered 3,810 grams of gold and arrested nine persons, including a woman.
Subsequently, another 16 persons were arrested and 32.647 kg of jewels were recovered, taking the total to 36.457 kg. The police would soon recover the balance 1.287 kg of gold as well.
Flanked by a large posse of police personnel and officers, Mr. Sanjay Mathur briefed reporters about the successful recovery by the teams in record time. “It was possible within a short time because of the coordination among officers and their team members,” he said.
To a query, he said, investigations suggested that in a bid to settle scores with an employee of the Muthoot FinCorp, a former employee of the firm had induced his friend (Selvin) who indulged in the crime by roping in others.
Of course, the gang members were keen on “making money through such illegal means.” Cases under IPC Sections 120 (b), 365, 342, 387, 420, 395, among others, were registered.
