Jewellery heist: Gang member arrested during vehicle-check

In a swift action within days of the daring heist at a jewellery showroom here, police on Friday said they have caught one of the gang members and recovered 4.5 kg of stolen gold from him. Manikandan was arrested near Tiruvarur, over 100 km from here, during a vehicle-check and confessed to have carried out the burglary in which over 30 kg of gold jewels were lifted from the showroom, they said.

He and his associate Suresh, said to be the kingpin of the burglary, were carrying the a part of the stolen jewels on a bike when Manikandan threw the loot on seeing the police. The two sped away but the policemen gave a hot chase for a short distance before catching Manikandan. Suresh, however, escaped.

"We checked the bar code on the recovered jewels and confirmed them to have been stolen from Lalithaa Jewellery," a police official said. Masked burglars had stolen jewels weighing about 30 kg from the showroom after gaining entry into it by drilling a hole on a wall early Wednesday.

The theft came to light when the employees opened the showroom on Wednesday morning. The gang members were associated with Murugan, a smuggler, suspected to be the brain behind the robbery, the police said.

Murugan has been allegedly involved in looting ATMs in several places in north India, they said. Manikandan told them that the remaining jewels were with Suresh and a hunt was on for him, the police added.

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