The police have arrested six persons, including a woman, in connection with the theft of 136 sovereigns of jewellery from a house near Tirunelveli Junction on December 12.
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Feroze Khan Abdullah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic), Tirunelveli City, said two unidentified persons took away 136 sovereigns of gold ornaments from the house of C. Thangadurai on Periya Thattakudi Street under Tirunelveli Junction police station limits on December 12 after attacking his wife T. Gandhimathi with sickles.
Four special teams were formed to nab the culprits. The special teams, led by Sub-Inspectors Vijay Golden Singh, Mahesh Kumar, Shaik Abdul Khader and Kasi Pandian, found that A. Manikanda Bhoopathi (22) of Sindhupoondurai, his associates P. Sudharshan (20) of Agasthiyarpatti under Vickramasingapuram police station limits, M. Vignesh Manikandan (21) of Rahmath Nagar in Palayamkottai were behind the burglary.
After Sudharshan and his friend P. Lakshmanakanthan of Mela Seval went inside the house and forcibly took the valuables, they fled the scene along with Vignesh Manikandan on a bike.
Then they met Manikanda Bhoopathi and escaped in his car.
“As the involvement of Manikanda Bhoopathi, Vignesh Manikandan and Sudharshan in the burglary was established, they were arrested on December 26 and the weapons, vehicles and the mobile phones used by the culprits seized,” said Mr. Abdullah.
The trio reportedly told the police that the brain behind the burglary was S. Azhaghu Nainar (24) of Seythunganallur in Thoothukudi district, who had been involved in several theft cases. Based on the instructions from Azhaghu Nainar, Lakshmanakanthan joined Manikanda Bhoopathi, Sudharshan and Vignesh Manikandan to execute the crime. “As Azhaghu Nainar was married to Ms. Gandhimathi’s sister’s daughter Subhiksha, he had close links with Gandhimathi’s daughter Sona.
After drawing the plot with the help of Sona and Subhiksha, Azhaghu Nainar had orchestrated the burglary with the help of his associates.
After intensive search at Chennai, Goa and Mumbai, one of the special teams nabbed Azhaghu Nainar, Subhiksha and Lakshmanakanthan in the early hours of Wednesday and recovered 101 sovereigns of gold ornaments, worth ₹20 lakh, from them,” Mr. Abdullah said.
Preliminary interrogation revealed that they were involved in several burglaries with the help of a few others. Further investigation is on.
