Cyberabad police nab gang involved in ₹12 crore gold heist in Tamil Nadu

The Cyberabad police in Hyderabad on Saturday arrested an inter-state dacoit gang which allegedly robbed gold ornaments worth nearly ₹12 crore from Muthoot Finance, a private gold loan financing firm, at Hosur in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu on Friday.

The police arrested eight people involved in the crime and seized gold ornaments weighing 25 kg and ₹93,000 in cash. The police also seized seven weapons, 10 magazines, 97 rounds of bullets, a lorry container, a Tata Sumo sports utility vehicle and 13 mobile phones from them.

“The Hudco police in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu has already booked cases against them under Section 395 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code, besides Section 27 (1) of Indian Arms Act,” Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjannar told reporters on Saturday.

The arrested men were identified as: Rup Singh Baghal (22), Shankar Singh Baghal (36), Pavan Kumar Vishkarma (22) (all from Madhya Pradesh), Bhupender Manji (24) and Vivek Mandal (32) (both from Jharkhand), Teak Ram (55) and Rajiv Kumar (35) from Uttar Pradesh and Lulya Pandey from Maharashtra. Another person, Amit, from Indore in Madhya Pradesh is absconding.

Six of the accused wearing helmets carried out a daring robbery at the Muthoot Finance branch at Hosur at 9.30 am on Friday by threatening the office staff at gun point, besides beating up the security guard.

“The accused decamped with the loot on two wheelers and reached the Bangalore-Tamil Nadu border, where they packed the ornaments in a box and kept the box in a container vehicle. They proceeded towards Nagpur via Hyderabad – some in the container and others in a Tata Sumo,” Sajjannar said.

Following an alert form the Krishnagiri district police, the Cyberabad police kept a watch on the movement of the vehicles. After ascertaining the details furnished by the Tamil Nadu police, the special operations team of Balanagar police intercepted the container vehicle at Medchal which had the stolen goods and weapons, the Commissioner said.