Three persons have been arrested by the Greater Chennai police as of Tuesday, August 16, in connection with the robbery in a branch of a non-banking financial company (NBFC) in the city. Police said they have recovered nearly 18 kg of gold worth Rs 8.5 crore from the accused. Around 32 kg of gold was stolen from the Arumbakkam branch of Fedbank Financial Services Ltd (Fedfina) on Saturday, August 13. The police identified the three accused who were arrested as Murugan – the main accused who had worked at the NBFC – and two others named M Santhosh and V Balaji.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal said that the main accused Murugan had worked in the bank for nearly two and a half years, and planned and carried out the robbery with two accomplices. He added that the police were able to access the call records of one of the accused and trace his location. The Commissioner also said that there might be two or three more people connected to the incident whom the police are on the lookout for.
According to The Hindu, Jiwal said that the NBFC had an alarm system which would trigger an alert at the Fedbank headquarters if an unauthorised person opened the vault. However, Murugan, who had worked at the NBFC, quickly turned it off and stole the valuables, according to the staff members. Most of the accused had grown up in the same locality and went to the same school, and had been planning the heist for a while, the Commissioner reportedly said. Santhosh and Balaji were reportedly arrested on Sunday, and Murugan was arrested on Monday. A fourth suspect Suriya was also identifed, police said, according to Indian Express. Apart from the gold, two bikes and two cars were also recovered from the accused.
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Around 3.30 pm in the afternoon on August 13, a group of armed robbers had entered the NBFC and stole gold estimated to be worth Rs 15 crore. The NBFC is located on the busy 100 feet road in Arumbakkam. The robbers allegedly threatened the branch manager and other employees with a knife, took the locker key, and confined them in a room. The police rushed to the spot after receiving a complaint from a customer who arrived at the bank after the robbery.