The Tiruchi District Rural Police have busted a network of robbers on Wednesday and arrested a woman and her acquaintances involved in many theft cases, who had been absconding from the police for nearly 15 years, at Samayapuram.
Speaking to media persons, Superintendent of Police, Tiruchi, V. Varun Kumar said he received an alert in the round-the-clock helpline number (94874 64651) from R. Annapoorani, a native of Manachanallur that she was robbed of 1.5 sovereigns of gold jewellery while travelling in a bus to Samayapuram temple on Wednesday morning.
Immediately, the beat police were alerted and rushed to the Sandhaipettai stop at Samayapuram. The police detained four suspects, Kaliyammal, Rekha, Saravanan, and Sarath, who travelled alongside Annapoorani in the bus and conducted an inquiry.
While exploring the footage of surveillance camera records and using the Face Recognition System application, it was revealed that they were involved in many robbery cases registered in various police station limits in Tiruchi district.
The police also found that Kaliyammal, by operating from Mumbai, had colluded with a network of miscreants in various places, including, Coimbatore, Palani, Tiruvannamalai, Chennai, Tiruvarur, Chittoor, Tirupathi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and committed crimes. She also sold the stolen gold ornaments with the help of Saravanan, a native of Tiruverumbur, and a few others and purchased properties in various cities, particularly in Mumbai.
They had been absconding from the police radar for nearly 15 years, Mr. Varun Kumar said and added that they had committed robberies by diverting the attention of the public, particularly in temple festivals and large gatherings.
The police recovered 58 sovereigns of gold jewellery, half a kilogram of silver, cash amounting to ₹26,000, cutters and other equipment used for committing robbery. The police have formed special teams to investigate the case further, Mr. Varun Kumar added.
