Gold recovered; cash, vehicles used for the crime seized

Mandya: The Special Mandya Police teams have cracked the case of a gang assaulting Mysuru jeweller Lalith and his staff near Gantagowdanahalli-Dyapasandra in Mandya and looting gold jewellery worth Rs. 80 lakh, by arresting six accused from Mysuru.

Police have recovered gold ornaments besides seizing cash and vehicles used for the crime from them. The incident had taken place on Apr. 14 evening.

Disclosing this at a press meet at District Armed Reserve (DAR) Grounds here yesterday, Superintendent of Police (SP) N. Yatish said that the arrested have been identified as Ramesh, Varun Gowda, Puneeth, Prakash, Raju and Kailash Kumar, residents of Udayagiri in Mysuru.

The SP said that jeweller Lalith was involved in supplying gold ornaments to various shops and on Apr. 14, Lalith along with Maadhuram took gold ornaments such as nose studs and finger rings in a car. After delivering the ornaments to gold shops at Chinya, Jakkanahalli and Basaralu, the duo were proceeding in the car on the road leading to Keregodu village. When they neared Gantagowdanahalli-Dyapasandra, two miscreants came on a bike from behind while four others came in a car from the front, waylaid the car, smashed the glass windows with a hammer, assaulted Maadhuram and decamped with the suitcase containing gold ornaments. A case was registered at Keregodu Police Station in this regard, the SP added.

Meanwhile, four Special Police teams were formed to crack the case and based on the clues found at the spot of crime and statements from the victims and also with the help of technical team, all the six accused were nabbed, the SP said and added that Ramesh, who had worked at jeweller Lalith’s store for about 14 years, is the prime accused, who had conspired to loot his former employer for which he had taken the help of other accused — auto drivers, daily wagers and a former colleague of the prime accused.

Cash award announced

Meanwhile, SP Yatish announced a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 for the investigating Police teams comprising Circle Inspector Kyathegowda, Sub-Inspectors Ramesh and Maruthi, Assistant Sub-Inspector Chikkaiah, staff Rajegowda, Madhukumar, Indrakumar, Girish; DCRB Inspector N.V. Mahesh, Sub-Inspectors Sheshadri Kumar and Venkatesh, staff K.P. Ravikiran, Lokesh, Keshava; Technical team Inspector Anandegowda, Sub-Inspectors Ravikumar and Ramesh Karakikatte, staff Jason, Umer, Prasanna, Lingaraju, Mahesh, Anand, Manjunath; CCTV team and CEN Police Station Inspector Raghavendra, Sub-Inspectors Kamalakshi, Jayalakshmamma and staff Manjunath, Lokesh, Prasanna and Krishna Kumar for cracking the case within 48 hours of the crime.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) M. Venugopal, Dy.SP T. Manjunath, DAR Dy.SP Virupakshegowda and others were present at the press meet.