The four who were picked up from a house in Kozhikode were Joseph, Rakesh, Radhakrishnan and a woman, Kanakeswari. The cops also recovered 57.29 kg of gold and Rs 5.57 lakh in cash from them.

In all, 80 kg of gold and Rs 25 lakh in cash were stolen from the South Malabar Gramin Bank branch at Chelambra in Malappuram district in a three-day operation between December 29 and 31 last year.

According to Additional Director-General of Police (north) Kundan Singh Jangpangi, the gang admitted that they got the idea after seeing the John Abraham movie Dhoom. If John and Co entered the bank by drilling through the roof of the building, our real-life robbers altered the script and drilled a hole through the bank’s floor which formed the roof of the hotel below. The gang had taken the hotel, which functioned in the ground floor of the building, on rent.

They later made off with the bundles of currencies and 3,348 packets containing gold ornaments mortgaged by borrowers. Not a soul outside had any inkling of the operation inside as it was thought that work was going on inside the hotel.

The police had raided a lodge at Nampally in Hyderabad on January 12 and recovered 1 kg of gold. At least one of the remaining members of the gang is believed to have escaped to Bangalore.

About 20 kgs of gold and Rs 20 lakh are yet to be recovered. The gang said they had sold the gold in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Hyderabad.

A Lancer car used by the  gang was also seized from Kozhikode.