The police have arrested two more persons in the Kudlu Service Cooperative Bank branch robbery case and recovered nearly eight kg of gold from them.
The arrested are Mujeeb, 27, a resident of Chowki locality here and Fenix Netto, alias Joemon, 30, hailing from Ernakulam.
The police also recovered Rs.5.25 lakh in cash, apparently looted from the bank, and took into custody a car bought with the booty, Superintendent of Police A. Srinivas told a press conference here on Sunday.
With this, the number of persons arrested in the case has risen to eight. Six persons, including the prime accused Kallangai Sherif, were arrested earlier. The police are on the lookout for another accused identified as Reji, hailing from Idukki, he said.
Mujeeb was arrested while travelling on a bus plying on the Cherkala-Mulleria route around 2.30 p.m. on Saturday. When interrogated, he confessed that he was staying with Joemon in a rented house at Veerajpetta, near Madikeri, in Karnataka.
The duo is said to have given Rs.4 lakh as advance to buy a piece of plot. The probe team reached the house and recovered the gold and cash.
The police arrested Joemon from a private hospital at Udmalpet, near Coimbatore, where he was being treated for malaria, Mr. Srinivas said.
Joemon admitted that he had pledged gold valued at Rs.7.50 lakh at a private finance firm at Tirupur, Tamil Nadu.
A gang of armed persons had taken away 17.684 kg gold and Rs.12.50 lakh in cash from the Eriyal branch of the bank on September 7, after holding two women employees hostage.
The police had recovered 7.50 kg gold from a plot at Bandiyod, near Kumbla, following the arrest of Sherif and his gang on September 16.
The team also recovered 390 grams gold from Karim, arrested from Goa. In all, 15.424 kg of stolen gold was recovered.
