A court here on Tuesday awarded ten years’ rigorous imprisonment to five persons convicted for stealing over 20 kg of pledged gold ornaments and Rs. 2.95 lakh in cash from the Cheruvathur branch of Vijaya Bank last year.
Delivering the verdict, Chief Judicial First Class Magistrate court judge G. Anil also imposed a fine of Rs. 25 lakh on each of them under various IPC provisions.
If they default on fine, the convicts will have to undergo an additional six-month prison term. Of the fine amount, Rs.75 will be paid to the bank. The judge awarded the sentence to Sulaiman, 42, from Karnataka’s Kodagu district, Abdul Latheef, 24, of Balal
in Vellarikundu taluk, Basheer, 24, of Balla beach in Kanhangad, A.J. Murali, 65, of Rajakkad in Idukki, and Abdul Khader of Cherkala near here, Deputy Public Prosecutor K. Prabhakaran said, elaborating on the verdict.
The court set free Abdul Khader, 48, a native of Erumad, near Madikkeri, in Karnataka, the seventh accused in the case.
The court decided to continue trial against Ashraf, hailing from Shanthihalli in Karnataka, who is absconding.
The burglary came to light on September 28 morning when the bank opened after a two-day holiday.
The convicts had hired the ground floor of the two-storey building on the railway station road at Cheruvathur in the guise of opening a retail outlet.
The gangsters entered the strongroom of the bank on the first floor by drilling open the concrete roof slab and decamped with 20.406 kg pledged gold ornaments and Rs. 2.95 lakh in cash kept in the bank locker.
A 21-member police team headed by Harishchandra Naik, the then Kanhangad Dy.SP, and K.E. Premachandran, Neeleshwaram Circle Inspector, managed to recover 17.718 kg of gold ornaments and Rs. 55,000 in cash from the gangsters.
The police managed to arrest the accused after examining footage from a CCTV camera installed in a nearby building.
