The Judicial Magistrate Court IV on Monday sentenced a 25-year-old man to three years’ imprisonment for a gold heist at a popular jewellery showroom in Vellore in December, 2021.
Judge Rose Kala pronounced T.K. Raman of Kuchipalayam village near Pallikonda town in Vellore guilty. . The Judge also charged a fine of ₹1,000.
The incident happened at an outlet of a gold retail chain, on Katpadi Road on December 15, 2021. The perpetrators drilled a hole in the wall at the back of the building and stole 16 kg of gold jewellery worth ₹8 crore. The suspect wore a dark face mask and meticulously sprayed paint to all 12 CCTV cameras placed inside the shop. The employees found out about the theft when they opened the showroom in the morning and informed the police.
Subsequently, eight special police teams were formed to nab the suspects and recover the lost jewellery. They analysed footage of 200 CCTV cameras and tracked previous offenders and their case history. A week later, police cracked the case by arresting one person and recovering the entire 16 kg of gold and diamond jewellery, estimated at ₹8 crore, from the graveyard in Odugathur on the outskirts of Vellore town.
The then Vellore SP, S. Rajesh Kannan (now SP in Namakkal) and ASP Albert John (now SP in Tirupattur) played a key role to crack the case.
Police got a key breakthrough in the case after analysing the CCTV footage, especially from inside the showroom as the suspect ensured that he should not be identified by the police by covering himself completely. Such cautiousness can be found only with local offenders as they fear getting caught in the neighbourhood. Offenders from other States or places, , do not bother about disclosing their identity so meticulously, police said.
