Jewellery store robbery case: Police struggle to nab absconding accused

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Solving an armed robbery case of a jewellery store in Byadarahalli has turned out to be a big problem for the city police as the investigation has led a team of cops to Dewar, a village in Jhalawar district in Rajasthan.

Around 10:42 am on October 12, a gang of armed assailants barged into Vinayaka Gold Jewellers and opened fire at the owner, Manoj Lohar, before fleeing with the looted valuables including gold ornaments worth Rs 60 lakh from the store on the busy Pipeline Road.

Pressure mounted on the city police and within hours, the cops nabbed a suspect while he was attempting to leave the city.

Based on the information obtained from the suspect, another accused was arrested in a few days and the police managed to recover almost half of the valuables from their possession.

However, three others who were part of the robbery are still at large. Recently, the police had received a tip-off that the three accused were spotted in Dewar village of Rajasthan.

A team has been sent to the village in order to track and nab the accused. However the Bengaluru police said that this is not as easy as it seems, due to the place being notorious for crime.

A senior official from Byadarahalli Police Station explained that the raiding teams must exercise caution while entering this particular area which is barely 25 kms away from Dewar village.

The area seems to be dominated by notorious criminals who are known for attacking the cops. Even the Rajasthan police is afraid of patrolling the area, the official said, adding that most of the people there have robbery, extortion and theft cases registered against them.

In 2017, a team of police from Tamil Nadu had been to the place to catch robbers who had escaped with four kg of gold, but the suspects and other locals in the village attacked the raiding team from Chennai.

In the resulting chaos, Inspector TV Peria Pandiyan of Chennai Police died.

Meanwhile it is learnt that the prime accused in Byadarahalli robbery case are hiding inside the area while the Bengaluru police team along with their counterparts in Rajasthan, are on the trail of the accused.