Cops crack gold heist, recover 62 lakh booty

Tirupati: Central Crime Station (CCS) cops cracked the gold heist in which Rs 61.85 lakh gold ornaments were stolen from a jewellery shop within 8 hours and recovered the entire booty after arresting the lone accused Kalyan (23).

The robbery took place in the early hours (1 am) on Saturday and the crime sleuths caught the accused on Saturday afternoon after a mammoth operation involving six police teams led by senior officials that plunged into investigation immediately after the receipt of the complaint from Lavanya Gold Shop in China Bazaar Street from where the gold jewelleries were stolen.

Speaking to media here on Sunday, Tirupati Urban SP Abhishek Mohanty said that the accused Kalyan (23) in a pre-planned move carried out the gold robbery in the shop-cum-residence, in which he worked but was removed two years back as his work was not satisfactory. Addiction to vices coupled with the urge to make quick buck drive the youth to the crime, he said.

The SP said Kalyan visited the shop under the pretext of purchasing a gold ear stud on Friday, an hour before the closure of the shop. Taking the advantage of his previous acquaintance with the employees, he freely chatted with them before he went to the toilet on the rear side in the residence portion.

He removed the ‘tower bolt’ on the door and also opened the (press) lock to the grill gate in the back side with the key that was kept in a shelf there and again hanged the lock to appear it was locked before leaving the shop. After four or five hours later around 1 am on Saturday, he came on a motor cycle to the shop back side, after parking the vehicle at a distance, gained entry easily into the shop through the residence portion when all are in sound sleep.

He took away the boxes in which the gold chains (weighing 2.5 kgs) were kept, cash Rs 20,000 and also did not forget to remove the DVR from the CCTV camera in the shop before leaving with the booty. He later threw away the DVR in an abandoned well while returning home at Vasavi Nagar in MR Palli in the city.

The crime teams deployed to investigate into the sensational gold heist, launched a man hunt and also gathered clues that ultimately led them to the accused, near his house when he was coming to dispose the stolen property, SP said that the vital clues gathered in the non-stop investigation by the teams helped to crack the robbery. Patting all those involved in the investigation, he said and added that he is recommending reward to them. Additional SP (Crime) D Siddha Reddy, DSP (Crime) P Ravi Sankar Reddy and other police officials were present.