Special teams of the Tiruchi Rural police achieved a breakthrough in a couple of robbery cases reported in Manikandam and Siruganur recently and arrested a four-member gang on Tuesday.
The teams recovered stolen property — gold jewellery weighing 30 sovereigns and a couple of cars — from the gang which was involved in several property offences in various districts across the State.
The accused T. Jayaraj (23), P. Suresh (29), K. Duraipandi (28) – all from Tirunelveli and S. Raja (24) of Tuticorin were later remanded in judicial custody.
The modus operandi of the gang were similar in both robbery cases wherein they struck at day time and took away gold jewellery and cars from the two houses after threatening the inmates.
The first robbery case to be reported was at Dwarka layout in Siruganur in June-end in which armed culprits gained entry into the house of a college lecturer and threatened him and his mother.
They took away a little over four sovereigns of gold from the house and sped away in the car belonging to the lecturer.
Siruganur police registered a case of robbery.
Days after the incident, a robbery of similar nature was reported in Egai town in Manikandam on July 3.
The armed criminals took away gold jewellery and a cellphone after threatening the inmates and drove in the car that was parked outside. The Manikandam police had booked a case.
The police sources said two teams were constituted to probe the grave property crimes.
During the course of the probe, one of the teams found that the culprits had missed the stolen cell phone at Namakkal.
Based on the information, the team found one of the stolen cars parked near a paper mill godown at Pallipalayam in Namakkal district.
From the fingerprints lifted from the stolen vehicle, the investigators could establish the hand of Jayaraj, a habitual offender.
The fingerprint lifted from the car matched with the print of Jayaraj that was stored in the police database, the sources said.
Upon getting hold of the profile of Jayaraj, the teams went in search of the offender to Namakkal, Tiruchengode, and Tirunelveli.
The sources said the teams apprehended Jayaraj when he came to meet a woman whom he knew near Konalai. The other three accused were arrested along with Jayaraj, the police said.
During enquiry, it was found that the gang was involved in chain snatching and house break-in cases in Tiruverambur and Lalgudi subdivisions.
The gang was involved in property crimes in Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Namakkal, and Tiruchengode besides Tiruchi, said the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tiruverambur, C. Palanichamy.
The modus operandi of the gang was to strike during day time at houses which were in the outer areas of the city, Deputy Superintendent of Police Palanichamy said.
Stolen gold jewellery was recovered in 13 cases from the gang members, he added.
