Old City gold heist kingpin held

 Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police on Thursday achieved a breakthrough in the major gold heist case which was reported in the first week of this month at Moosabowli under Charminar police station limits with the arrest of its kingpin. A newspaper which was found at the crime scene helped the police crack the case.

The arrested was identified as Amjad Khwaja Ameen Shaik alias Amja (41), a resident of Thane, Mumbai. He was the major player in the robbery, the police said. Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar said, “Amjad was a notorious criminal and he master-minded the dacoity. The Mumbai police told us that the accused was involved in more than 40 cases in various States.” He added that they had formed 17 teams to crack the case. “We found a Mumbai-based newspaper at the scene of offense. With that clue we tracked the case,” the Commissioner said.

The police initially suspected the insider job including the owner of the workshop. “We suspected Nithai Das, as his other workshop was very close to the residence of the accused,” Anjani Kumar said. He said that nine other accused were still absconding in this case.

The CCTV footage which the police had released has showed that prior to the dacoity, some members of the gang had held a recce and identified the entry and exit points. They entered the locality in three different groups by autos.

On March 6, the 10-member interstate gang broke into Nithai Das’s gold workshop in Moosabowli locality. They looted the gold weighing around 3 to 5 kilos in broad daylight at knifepoint. The gang spent around one-and-a-half hour rummaging thoroughly the workshop located in an apartment. As many as 21 workers were on their duty of making gold into ornaments.

The miscreants entered one by one into the workshop and then brandished the lethal weapons. Then they confined the workers in a room and tied up with ropes. The police also recovered ornaments worth Rs 6 lakh from the possession of the accused. Hyderabad city police have deputed five teams including two Task Force teams to nab the remaining accused persons to recover the booty.