5 arrested for waylaying of goldsmith's staff in Tiruvallur

CHENNAI: Tiruvallur district police on Friday arrested five persons, including a bank staff-son of a jewellery shop owner and his accomplices- Kabaddi players, in connection with the waylaying of the staff of a goldsmith and robbing jewels worth 174 sovereigns and cash from them, four days ago.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the mastermind of the robbery, S Kamal Kishore (31) had planned the robbery for the past two years.

Last Monday, two men Sohan (23) and Kalu Ram (30) who are employed with a goldsmith, Rameshwarlal (43) were robbed by the gang near Magaral village within Vengal police limits.

Rameshwarlal, a native of Rajasthan, runs a goldsmith unit in Nerkundram and his staff supply the jewellery to shops in Kancheepuram, Chennai, Chengelpet and Tiruvallur.

Sohan and Kalu Ram who had delivered jewels to shops at Nazarathpet, Thamaraipakkam and Poonamalle were riding towards Red Hills when they were robbed.

The duo had nearly 174 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs. 1.1 lakh with them, when they were waylaid by Kamal Kishore and gang.

Special teams which were formed by the Tiruvallur district perused hundreds of CCTV footages and found that the victims were followed in a car and two motorbikes in several stretches.

After zeroing in on the suspects, police rounded up Kamal Kishore. Investigations revealed that Kamal Kishore's father, Sunil runs a jewellery store near Thirunindravur.

“Kamal who was employed with a bank in Anna Nagar in Chennai was not going to work regularly for the past six months. His father had set up a pawn broker shop for him and asked him to take care of it. Rameshwarlal's staff used to supply jewellery to Sunil's shop too and noting that they carry several lakhs worth jewellery, Kamal Kishore had planned to rob them," a senior police officer said.

For the waylaying, he took in local Kabaddi players - Tamil Mani (28), Balaji (29), Sugumar (26) and Gladis (30) and executed the robbery.

Police have recovered 820 grams of the stolen gold jewellery from them. "We are still investigating about the accomplices," the officer said.

The arrested persons were produced before a magistrate and remanded in custody.