'Chambal gang' held in Gujarat for City jeweller's murder

3 suspects arrested but 'ringleader' at large; B'lore police to seek their custody

A gang of suspected dacoits from Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh, which murdered a jeweller in Rajajinagar in broad daylight last year, was arrested in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Monday, a senior officer of Bangalore police said.

The arrests are being seen as a “major breakthrough” in the murder of Shravan Kumar Pokarna, who ran Rishab Jewellers at the busy ESI Hospital junction in Rajajinagar.
A special team of Bangalore police, led by an assistant commissioner, has left for Ahmedabad to take the suspects into custody. It would obtain the suspects’ body warrant from a court in Ahmedabad.

The suspects — identified as Gaurav Tomar, Manish Goswami and Vinay Parmar — were arrested by Madhya Pradesh police on suspicion, in a different case. Upon interrogation, they confessed to stabbing Pokarna to death, the officer told Deccan Herald on the condition of anonymity. Bangalore police will interrogate the suspects to determine how they committed the crime.

The gang members had barged into Pokarna’s shop on March 23, 2013, and attacked him when he resisted them. They not only looted the shop but also took away the CCTV camera along with the recording box. Police struggled to solve the murder mystery in the absence of the CCTV camera. Pokarna, 46, was the brother-in-law of BJP MLC, Lehar Singh.

The suspected ringleader, Vishal Goswami, is at large. The gang would target only jewellers. It murdered three jewellers in Ahmedabad in 2013.

The suspects took care not to leave any clues behind. But their undoing was making ransom calls to some jewellers, who readily approached the police. Investigators monitored the suspects’ movement and managed to apprehend them.

The Ahmedabad police later shared the information with their Bangalore counterparts.