Two days after a masked robbery at the popular Lalithaa Jewellery store in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy district, one man involved in the heist has been nabbed by the police in Thiruvarur. Late on Thursday during a police check of the main roads in the district, Manikandan was caught as he attempted to flee along with Suresh.
According to reports, the duo was riding a bike and failed to stop at a vehicle check in the Vilamal area of Thiruvarur. The police gave chase and nabbed them near Manappuram. While pillion rider Suresh escaped, Manikandan was caught and taken to Trichy, 100 km away.
According to one report in Puthiya Thalaimurai, Manikandan had 5 kg worth of jewels on him, matching the same barcodes as the ones stolen from Lalithaa Jewellery in the wee hours of Wednesday. The men involved in the heist had reportedly split the jewels.
“Even as we obtained CCTV footage from four different cameras, we could not identify the thieves. We found another footage from (a CCTV camera) on the street showing the entry of burglars from the nearby empty ground. Burglars were wearing thick hand gloves to ensure that they do not leave their fingerprints. The burglars came wearing toy masks. They used a backpack to take away the jewels,” one police officer said.
Earlier in the day, the police released new footage of the heist showing the masked men meticulously carrying out the robbery. The men, wearing a dog and a cat mask, can be seen entering the ground floor of the store, after surveying the surroundings. While one man holds out a duffel bag, another carefully breaks into the jewellery display, removing necklace after necklace on the mannequin.
Six men were picked up in Pudukkottai in connection with the robbery. However, their involvement in the case is as yet unclear.
Source: The News Minute