india

Updated: Oct 05, 2019 00:23 IST

In a major breakthrough in a daring heist at Lalithaa Jewellery in Trichy, police in neighbouring Thiruvarur nabbed a person accused in the dacoity and recovered from him five kg of diamond, platinum and gold jewellery late on Thursday night.

The arrest comes after the Tamil Nadu police claimed that a dreaded team of dacoits from north India was involved in the burglary of jewels worth Rs 13 crore.

With the prize catch of Manikandan, 35, a native of Thiruvarur, a manhunt has been launched and nine special teams have been formed to nab seven more accused, including the mastermind of the gang, S Murugan, 45, also from Thiruvarur, about 300 km from Chennai.

An investigating officer said Murugan, a history-sheeter, has over 150 dacoity cases pending against him in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

It was sheer chance that during a routine vehicle check for enforcing the helmet rule at Kamalambal Nagar on the outskirts of the town that the cops arrested Manikandan.

Manikandan of Vilamal in Thiruvarur was driving a two-wheeler carrying his share of the loot at Lalithaa Jeweller with his accomplice, Seerathoppu Suresh late on Thursday night. The duo tried to flee but the police overpowered and nabbed Manikandan while Suresh, also a resident of Thiruvarur, managed to escape.

“During the inquiry, we retrieved gold, diamond and platinum jewels weighing five kg from Manikandan. The jewels had the barcode and symbols of Lalitha Jewellery. Manikandan confessed that five kg of jewels was his share in the loot. He further admitted that Suresh and seven other dacoits have the remaining jewels,” a police officer with the special team inquiring the case told HT on condition of anonymity.

“Since Suresh is the close relative of history-sheeter Murugan, we suspect the latter’s involvement in the case. There are more than 150 robbery cases pending against Murugan in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,” the officer noted.

The masked dacoity on Tuesday in the heart of Trichy city has left the cops stunned. Leaving silver ornaments untouched, the burglars decamped with diamond, platinum and gold jewellery.

Trichy zone police have alerted all the tollgates in Trichy and neighbouring Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Pudukkottai, Perambalur and Karur districts and tightened vehicles checks.

“Murugan is a unique looter. He never used to board in lodges. He has a car which has all the facilities. After the robbery, Murugan used to travel in his car. He has never stayed in his house. Murugan and this team have been using walky-talky to communicate. In fact, Thiruvarur police had attempted more than 50 times to arrest Murugan from his house. But he seldom stays there,” police officers added.

Several stories are doing the rounds about Murugan.

“Murugan is widely known as Thiruvarur Murugan. He is highly interested in cinema and wanted to produce a film in 2011, which proved unsuccessful. The police had learned that Murugan had sketched the heist plan after seeing ‘Money Heist’, a Netflix web series about robbing banks,” police added.

Meanwhile, the six Jharkhand men detained on Wednesday by the Trichy Zoanal police, are still being kept for questioning.

A Amalraj, Trichy City Police Commissioner, said police have been inquiring the six Jharkhand men.

“It seems that the six men were planning to do some other crime in the state. They are furnishing inappropriate details. So, we have not released them. The inquiry is still on,” Amalraj told HT.

“So far, we have made one arrest in the case. Since we have to catch the others involved in the crime, details prejudicial to the investigation could not be disclosed,” he added.

Police are also inquiring the staff members at Lalithaa Jewellery’s Trichy showroom.

“The burglars drilled the showroom’s sidewall which is very close to the manager’s chair inside and stole jewels from the ground and first floor of the three-floor showroom. Therefore, we are suspecting that some insiders should have helped the robbers. Hence, we are inquiring the employees,” the police officers added.