Karnataka   

Inter-state robbers arrested

— Photo: Sampath Kumar

RICH HAUL: A police officer photographs jewellery recovered from an inter-State gang and displayed at the Police Commissioner’s office in Bangalore on Tuesday. The jewellery was looted by the gang from Chemmanur Jewellery’s showroom in the city in August.

BANGALORE: The Bangalore police arrested seven persons of an inter-State gang in connection with the sensational Chemmanur Jewellers gold heist and recovered 14.76 kg of gold ornaments and two foreign-made pistols.

On August 11, six armed men had made away with 30 kg gold, worth Rs.2.9 crore, and Rs.3.5 lakh in cash from the Chemmanur Jewellers outlet on Kammanahalli Main Road in Banaswadi police station limits here.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Bijay Kumar Singh told presspersons on Tuesday that investigations had revealed the gang had also looted Rs.15 lakh in cash and 15 kg gold from a cooperative bank in Krishnapuram police station limits in Palakkad in Kerala in March 2007; Rs. 3.5 lakh in cash and 22 kg gold from a jewellery shop in Nigdi police station limits in Pune in April 2007 and Rs.7 lakh in cash from the State Bank of India branch in Udhambagh police station limits in Belgaum in December 2006.

The gang had also looted 22 kg gold ornaments from Rajalakshmi Jewellers in Abids police station limits in Hyderabad in February 2003. While three of the accused in the case were arrested by the Mumbai police in 2005, the others were at large, Mr. Singh said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur said that they had informed the Hyderabad, Palakkad and Pune police of the arrests and also advised them to take the accused into their custody through warrants for investigating the cases registered in their respective cities.

Mr. Singh said six of the arrested were part of a 23-member gang that operated across the country. Important members of the gang such as Nikhil Shetty, Vasanth Saliyan, Sandeep Singh, Krishna alias CBI Krishna and Gopal Ramakanth Shetty are at large.

The arrested were identified as Umesh Shetty (34), Nagaraja (35), Nandish (30), Gopal Narayan Alva (37), Manish Raju Shetty (30) and Radhakrishna Shetty (40). Hemalatha (29) of Chikmagalur district, who had allegedly harboured the accused, has also been arrested, the police said.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Home Minister M.P. Prakash had a look at the recovered jewellery that was displayed at the Police Commissioner’s office.

Mr. Prakash announced a cash reward of Rs.5 lakh to the team that arrested the accused.

Anoop Chemmanur, Managing Director of Chemmanur Jewellers, thanked the police and announced that his company would also reward the police team.

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