Four men, hailing from Salse village in Solapur, Maharashtra were arrested by a city police team for the theft of over 5.5 kg of gold jewellery in Peerkankaranai on August 29. The men were part of a gang, seven members of which are still on the run.
The theft took place inside a private bus, when two Mumbai-based wholesale jewellery dealers Manoj and K.P. Singh were carrying the jewellery from Madurai to Chennai. Following a complaint from their employer Sanjay Jain of Mumbai, Peerkankarani police registered a case and launched a probe.
“We suspected that two unidentified passengers, who had disembarked from the bus earlier, had stolen the bags. A probe revealed that they had bought tickets under fake names, but a mobile number provided turned out to be the crucial clue,” Commissioner of Police, S. George told The Hindu .
Investigators tracked the mobile number to Aurangabad, and found out it belonged to a man who was an agent of the gang. A team led by Inspectors B. Sagadevan and A. Joachim Jerry with seven constables, camped near Salse and rounded up three suspects – Ramarao Kale (30), Vilasrao Kale (30) and Chandu Sukale (30), on September 14.
Later, the trio led investigators to Punekar, a man from Karmala taluk, the gang’s agent for selling the stolen gold. Police managed to recover over 1.5 kg of the jewellery, worth more than Rs. 38 lakh.
“The gang members all hail from the same village and are suspected to have followed the jewellers right from Mumbai to Madurai and then to Chennai,” Mr. George added. Police are still on the hunt for the rest of the gang.
