Chennai: It was a moment of reel and reality coming together as the investigation in the jaw-dropping August 13 robbery led the probe agencies to the house of a police inspector.
That day, a group of armed robbers barged into the Arumbakkam branch of a non-banking financial company (NBFC) Fedbank Financial Services in Chennai and looted over 31 kg of gold jewellery worth around Rs 20 crore. It must have resembled a scene from any Bollywood flick of the 90s as here too the NBFC employees were tied to chairs and held at knifepoint as robbers 'cleaned up' the place during broad daylight.
The NBFC is located on the busy 100 feet road in Chennai’s Arumbakkam and the incident happened at 3.30 pm. Police initially suspected that a Fedbank employee and his associates may have been involved in the crime. During the next two days, they were able to achieve a major breakthrough, arresting three accused, including the mastermind Murugan, who was an employee of the company, and recovering 28 kg of the stolen jewellery.
Also read: Real life 'Money Heist': Bank robbers with bear mask flee with over Rs 4.50 crores, 8.3 kg gold
The rest was still missing until startling facts started to emerge during the interrogation of two other robbers, M Santhosh and his friend V Balaji. Analysis of phone signals revealed that Santhosh roamed around the Pozhichalur area for two hours after carrying out the heist. Santhosh's wife Jayanthi is a friend of Acharapakkam police inspector Amalraj's wife.
Based on this, Santosh was interrogated. He eventually cracked and revealed that he had hidden the remaining gold in the house of Inspector Amalraj. According to sources, Jayanthi handed over the gold to Amalraj's wife for safekeeping, however, it is not yet clear whether she knew about the heist.
A team of police officers searched the Inspector's house and recovered the remaining 3.7 kg of gold jewellery. Police are still investigating the case to ascertain the role of the police officer in the loot.
