Mangaluru: The stolen cash and gold ornaments worth Rs four crore have been recovered, and four people have been arrested in connection with the Kotekar Co-operative Bank robbery, police said on Monday. Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agarwal lauded the efforts of the police team in solving the case.
According to officials, on January 17, four masked and armed individuals looted the bank, making off with cash and gold jewelry. Investigators pointed out that lapses on the bank’s part, including CCTV cameras being under maintenance and the master locker being left open, contributed to the ease with which the offenders carried out the robbery.
Addressing a press conference here, the senior police official said,"All the 18.3 kgs of gold and 3.8 lakh in cash and armaments and lethal weapons, the getaway car, and two fake number plates were recovered in roughly a week. We lost no time in tracking the culprits. We have arrested four accused, and hunt is on for four more people involved in the bank heists.
“Our teams were formed; four of them were deputed in Tamil Nadu, and one team in Maharashtra travelled over 3700 kilometres in total in just three days and successfully worked towards apprehending the main culprits in this daylight robbery, Agarwal stated. Those arrested include Murugundi Thevar (36), Yosuva Rajendran (35), Kannan Mani (36), and M Shanmugasundaram (65), police said.
Four others, including one Shashi Thevar, are yet to be arrested, police said. According to the officer, the crime was planned six months ago when all the accused met at the Taloja jail in Maharashtra in consultation with Shashi Thevar, a local contact. As a part of the plan, Murugundi had done a detailed recee of the bank three times during the last six months and chose to zero in on committing the crime on a Friday, at a time nearer to the prayer time on Friday afternoon, when the bank will have a lesser crowd.
“We had full cooperation from Mumbai police and by Tamil Nadu police in nabbing the culprits. At the time of the robbery, the CCTV was not working fully and there was no armed guard present on duty," he said.
Following this incident, the Mangaluru city police will brainstorm over bringing a standard operating protocol for all banks in rural areas too for ensuring safety and restraints against such incidents recurring in the future, the Commissioner said. The property recovered from the accused will be released to the bank through the court after proper documentation and legal process, he said.
“The property belongs to 1600 different depositors, and the value of each gold ornament has to be notified by the bank after looking through the documents. However, 10 kg of gold that was also present at the time of the heist in the bank was not robbery," he said.
