Rs.48-lakh microfinance heist solved, two more held

November 07, 2016 12:00 am | Updated December 02, 2016 01:58 pm IST - KOLLAM:

The persons arrested by the Kottarakara police in connection with heists from two microfinance companies.

The persons arrested by the Kottarakara police in connection with heists from two microfinance companies.

The Deepavali eve heist of Rs.42 lakh from the Kottarakara branch office of a microfinance company has been solved by the anti-theft squad of the Kottarakara police with the arrest of two men on Saturday night.

The arrests led to police solving a similar heist of Rs.5.20 lakh from another microfinance company at Neduvathur three months ago.

Two persons were also arrested in connection with the latter incident.

The stolen amount, Rs.20 lakh, has been recovered at the instance of those arrested.

The arrested persons were identified as Sunil Babu, 23, of Ambalathumkala and Akhil Radhakrishnan, 20, also from the same area. Another suspect in the same heist is at large.

The arrested persons are cannabis addicts and have been involved in criminal cases earlier too.

Following the Deepavali eve heist, a police team under the direct supervisions of the Kollam City Police Commissioner, S. Satheesh Bino who is also in charge of the Kollam rural police jurisdiction, swung into action.

The squad had to mostly rely on the footages from a CCTV installed at a nearby shop because the burglars had not left much clues at the scene of the crime.

Kottarakara DySP B. Krishnakumar, who headed the squad, said the footages were sent for examination to the Forensic Lab at Thiruvananthapuram and reports on the finger prints obtained showed that two person involved in the incident were on police records for criminal offences.

Nabbed

They were identified and nabbed.

Mr. Krishnakumar said that during interrogations they spilled the beans that along with two other men they were also involved in the Rs.5.20 lakh at Neduvathur.

In both instances, the lockers in which the cash was kept were carried away and broken open. One of the persons, Ranjith, involved in the Neduvathur heist, was an employee with the Haripad branch of the company. He was terminated for misappropriation of cash collected.

Ranjit had managed getting updated information of the collections each day at many of the branches.

It was on his guidance that the Kottarakara heist was carried out, Mr. Krishnakumar said. On the basis of information from Sunil and Akhil, Ranjith and his accomplice Vishnu, 25, were also nabbed.

A good portion of the stolen amount was stashed at a location by the suspects and at their instance that amount too would be recovered in the next couple of days, Mr. Krishnakumar said. All the four were produced before a magistrate court at Kottarakara and remanded to the sub jail there.

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