A week after the gold heist at a popular jewellery showroom in the heart of Vellore city, the District Police have cracked the case by arresting one person and recovering the entire 16 kg of gold and diamond jewellery, estimated at ₹8 crore, from the graveyard in Odugathur on Monday.
Addressing mediapersons here, AG Babu, DIG (Vellore Range), said that T. K. Raman, 23, a resident of Kuchipalayam village near Pallikonda, was involved in the crime. He has two bike theft cases in Pallikonda police station limits. He was arrested from his rented house in Odugathur village where he had buried the stolen jewellery in the graveyard.
A case has been registered against the suspect by the Vellore North police. “The special police teams integrated both traditional and scientific ways of investigation, including analysing footage of 200 CCTV cameras and tracking previous offenders and their case history,” Mr. Babu, DIG (Vellore Range), told The Hindu .
Accompanied by Vellore SP S. Rajesh Kannan, and ASP Albert John, Mr. Babu said that they got a key breakthrough in the case after analysing the CCTV footage, especially from inside the showroom as the suspect ensured that he should not be identified by the police by covering himself completely. Such cautiousness can be found only with local offenders as they fear getting caught in the neighbourhood. Offenders from other States or places, he said, do not bother about disclosing their identity so meticulously.
It was on last Wednesday (December 15), unidentified miscreants drilled a hole into a jewellery showroom and decamped with valuables worth crores in Vellore city. The incident happened at an outlet of a gold retail chain, on Katpadi Road.
The perpetrators drilled a hole in the wall at the back of the building and stole 16 kg of gold jewellery worth ₹8 crore.
The suspect wore a dark face mask and meticulously sprayed paint to all 12 CCTV cameras placed inside the shop. The employees found out about the theft when they opened the showroom in the morning and informed the police.
Subsequently, Mr. Babu set up eight special police teams to nab the suspects and recover the lost jewellery. As the showroom had CCTV cameras only inside the showroom, DIG Mr. Babu said the suspect used the empty plot on the rear side of the showroom to drill a hole. “He (the suspect) drilled it for a week taking advantage of the lack of CCTV cameras on the rear side of the showroom. After this incident, we have decided to have a meeting with such showrooms and banks to install CCTV cameras on all four sides of their premises," he said.
