SIT formed to crack daylight robbery of gold jewellery worth ₹1.84 crore at Peechi

A 12-member gang allegedly robbed a gold merchant of 2.63 kg of jewellery worth ₹1.84 crore in broad daylight by waylaying his car at Kallidukku along National Highway 544 at Peechi in Thrissur last Sunday (September 22, 2024) around 11:15 a.m.

The Peechi police have registered a first information report (FIR) based on a complaint lodged by the victim, Arun Sunny, 40, a resident of Chembukkavu in Thrissur on Wednesday. His friend Rojy Thomas was also with him on the front passenger seat at the time of the incident. According to the complainant, both of them were assaulted by the assailants.

A special investigation team (SIT) led by Ollur Assistant Commissioner of Police has been formed to crack the case. “The team split into five separate teams has fanned out across the district and beyond. We have received a CCTV image of one of the accused changing cars during the course of the robbery though he was masked. We have widely shared his photograph. The registration numbers of the vehicles used by the accused were found to be fake. Neither have they passed through either of the two toll plazas in the region,” said police sources.

Reportedly, the two victims were coming from Coimbatore to Thrissur with the jewellery when the accused who came in three SUVs waylaid their car on Kallidukku Service Road. Though the spot where the crime was executed had no CCTV, the action was accidentally caught in the CCTV of a private bus behind the victim’s car.

While one car could be seen parked obstructing the path of the victim’s car, the other two were parked by its right side and behind it with a trailer on the left side. The victim and his friend could be seen forcibly moved into one of the cars of the accused. One of the accused then got behind the sedan of the accused, and all four vehicles were driven away.

According to the FIR, the two were assaulted, including using a hammer, reportedly for information about the jewellery hidden inside their car. After looting the jewellery hidden, reportedly inside a secret chamber in the car, both were dumped in two different locations while their car was also abandoned.

“We are still investigating the case. There is as yet no information about the assailants,” said Peechi police sources.

The accused have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 310(2) (dacoity), 137(2) (abduction).

Published - September 27, 2024 12:51 am IST