Hunsur jewellery shop dacoity: Two arrested in Bihar

Mysuru: District police have arrested two accused in Bihar, in connection with the dacoity of a jewellery shop in Hunsur town in broad daylight on December 28.

The police personnel, who traced the accused to Bihar travelled there and arrested the duo, recently.

In the sensational Hunsur case, the accused have tried to evade the police, by strictly avoiding mobile phones during the crime. However, the police identified the suspects through facial recognition technology and arrested two individuals in Bihar.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, District Superintendent of Police (SP) Mallikarjuna Baladandi said, “A notorious inter-state gang is behind the dacoity. While two accused have been arrested, there are more than 10 suspects involved in the crime. The CCTV camera footage showed five individuals committing the dacoity. The faces of three accused were visible. Since they did not use mobile phones, tracking them through digital signals was impossible.”

Breakthrough

The SP said, “Using facial recognition technology and an internal database, the police personnel traced the suspects to Bihar. Five special teams were formed under the leadership of Additional SP L Nagesh and dispatched to various districts. A team led by Inspectors Santosh Kashyap, D M Puneeth, and Sub-Inspector Ajay Kumar, with the assistance of Bihar police, arrested Rishikesh Kumar Singh (alias Chotu), a native of Delhi; and Pankaj, a native of Bhagalpur in Bihar at Darbhanga district of Bihar.”

He said, “While Rishikesh Kumar Singh is involved in four murder and robbery cases, Pankaj is involved in 27 criminal cases. Pankaj is the mastermind, who recruited the youth into the gang and provided them logistical support. The suspects reportedly met in various jails across the country, formed a group, and began operating as a professional gang. No local individual from Mysuru was found to be involved.”

The SP described the group as ‘professional dacoits’, who were operating in Karnataka for the first time. The gang scouted for targets in Kodagu, Hassan, and Mysuru districts before finalising Sky Gold and Diamond Jewellery Store on the Hunsur Bypass road. Before the heist, they stayed in lodges in Hunsur and Periyapatna, using fake Aadhaar cards and mobile numbers belonging to strangers.

The SP said, “The gang threatened the staff of the jewellery shop at gunpoint, with pistols to carry out the robbery. The scale of the robbery is massive, and the police are focused on recovering the stolen valuables. 450 types of jewellery, weighing 8.34 kg, valued at Rs 10 crore was looted.”

Baladandi said, “A total of 50 police personnel have been searching continuously for two weeks to bust the case. So far, they have recovered 12.5 grams of gold, Rs 92,000 in cash, a jewellery box with the ‘Sky Gold’ logo, and a Royal Enfield motorcycle.”