Armed gang flees with 7.25 kg gold

The damaged windshield of a car which was attacked and gold bars robbed from its occupants at Ponnaiah Rajapuram, in Coimbatore, on Saturday. —Photo: K. Ananthan

A four-member gang attacked a man working in a gold smithy in the city in the early hours of Saturday and fled with about 7.25 kg gold ingots.

Seven special teams were formed by the city police to nab the robbers and recover the gold claimed to be worth more than Rs. 1.8 crore.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), R.V. Ramya Bharathi said that Venkatesan and his friend Srinivasan owned separate gold smithies in Coimbatore.

P. Prakash (35), who works for Srinivasan, and Vijayan working for Venkatesan, brought raw gold from Chennai and delivered finished jewellery to them.

The Deputy Commissioner said that Prakash and Venkatesan used to travel together for safety reasons.

Venkatesan and Srinivasan took turns to pick both the employees from the railway station.

Venkatesan picked the two who reached Coimbatore by the Cheran Express on Saturday and drove to Srinivasan’s house in the Rajammal Layout, Ponnaiah Rajapuram.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that Prakash rang the bell and was waiting for someone to open the door. Venkatesan and Vijayan were in the car.

“Four persons with monkey caps and armed with sickles came on two bikes and damaged the car’s windscreen, cut Prakash on his right hand and fled with the two bags of gold from the back seat of the vehicle,” she said.

Ms. Bharathi added that the CCTV camera near the door of Srinivasan’s house could not record the miscreant’s faces as the gate was closed. “The attack and escape took place in about six seconds.

Case registered

After treatment in a private hospital, Prakash lodged a complaint with the Variety Hall Road Police and a case under sections 394 (causing hurt while committing robbery) and 397 (dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code was registered.

In addition to intensive vehicle check, the police also began looking for videos, if any, recorded in cameras installed in houses or commercial buildings in the locality.

The police suspected that the miscreants could have monitored the victims’ movements or received information about the transportation of jewellery through persons known to the victims.