Chennai gold heist: Mastermind arrested; 13 kg gold recovered

The Tamil Nadu police have arrested two more persons for looting 32 kg of gold from the Fed Bank Financial services limited, a non-banking financial services unit of the Federal Bank, in Chennai.

Police have also recovered 13 kg of gold from the two who reportedly surrendered after the police widened the probe.

The arrested have been identified as Murugan, the mastermind of the robbery and his friend Suryah.

Investigations revealed that Murugan along with his friends had been planning the robbery for a month or so. “For almost a month, they had been arranging vehicles and other logistics for this operation. They also borrowed money from a few people,” a police officer told The Federal.

Earlier on Monday, police arrested three people, namely M Santhosh (30) and his friend Balaji (28) of Villivakkam while they were trying to flee the city.

Police had seized 18 kg of gold from Santhosh and Balaji. Police also managed to seize 13 kg of gold from Murugan and Suryah.

During the course of the investigation, it was found that the gang rented a room in the city and attempted to melt the gold they robbed from the bank.

Also Read: Chennai gold heist: 3 nabbed for Fed Bank robbery; 18 kg gold recovered

“In fact, they managed to melt one kg of it. However, they could not melt the rest. Then,  they shared the items among themselves for making it easy to transport outside the city,” police said.

Murugan and Suryah also sought help from a person named Srivatsan Sriram from a jewellery shop in Coimbatore to melt the gold. Sriram also has been detained and the police are probing if he has any connection with the case.

Apart from the five accused, police are looking for people who helped the gang.

“Once their roles are confirmed, they might also be added into the case,” police said.

On Saturday (August 13), three masked men barged into the Fed bank and fled with 32 kg of gold worth ₹20 crore.