Fedbank robbery case mastermind arrested

Murugan, a staff of the company, was held on Monday

Commissioner of Greater Chennai Police Shankar Jiwal briefing the media in Chennai on Monday about the breakthrough in the Fedbank-Gold Loans office robbery. At right, police officials display the jewellery that were recovered in the case. | Photo Credit: R. RAVINDRAN

The city police on Monday said a major breakthrough had been achieved in the investigation into the robbery at Fedbank-Gold Loans office in Arumbakkam with the arrest of three accused, including the mastermind Murugan, who was an employee of the company.

On Monday, Commissioner of Police Shankar Jiwal inspected the seized jewellery at Arumbakkam police station. Later, he briefed the media about the progress made in the case.

Around 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, the Fedbank-Gold Loan office was looted. Three persons escaped with 31.7 kg of gold jewellery. The police team reached the spot in 20 minutes after being alerted by a customer who visited the office and found three persons — two staff and a watchman — locked in the washroom.

Murugan, a staff member of the company, and two others committed the crime.

Mr. Jiwal said 11 special teams were formed under the supervision of Additional Commissioner-North, T.S. Anbu, and other officers to trace the accused. The special teams analysed CCTV footage, call records of the main accused, his movement in the last 10 days and the escape routes of the accused.

Mr. Jiwal said: “We got a breakthrough. Two of the accused were nabbed and 18 kg of gold jewellery were recovered from them within 24 hours. The mastermind, arrested now, will be interrogated shortly. We suspect that two or three more persons were involved in the offence. We are searching for them.” There were chances of recovery of the remaining properties in two or three days.

On Sunday, M. Santhosh, 30, and V. Balaji, 28, from Villivakkam were arrested. Murugan was arrested on Monday.

Explaining the sequence of events, he said as per the alarm system, the headquarters of the financial institution would get an alert if an unauthorised person opened the vault. The staff said the main accused quickly turned it off.

Most of the accused were from the same locality and plotted the heist 10 days ago, he said. “Our investigation revealed that the accused thought that they could get easy money and escape easily,” Mr. Jiwal added.