Payment made for 'pav bhaji' helps police crack robbery case in Kalaburagi

The robbery was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the workshop. The police officials had constituted five special teams to nab the culprits.

Kalaburagi: Kalaburagi City police arrested three persons in connection with the robbery of a jewellery workshop and recovered 2.865 kg ornaments worth Rs 2.1 crore along with Rs 4.80 lakh cash.

The 'pav bhaji' that the mastermind paid for using a digital wallet helped the police to arrest the accused.

The arrested are Farooq Ahmed Malik (40), a gold dealer in Saraf Bazar who is a native of West Bengal, Ayodya Prasad Chavan (48) and Sohail Sheikh (30) from Mumbai.

A gang of four robbers barged into a goldsmith’s workshop brandishing weapons and looted ornaments in Saraf Bazar here on July 11.

They had threatened the owner of the shop with a knife and a toy pistol.

The masked robbers entered the shop situated on the first floor of a complex and threatened the goldsmith at gunpoint. They had also tied the goldsmith, gagged him with a tape before fleeing with gold ornaments.

The robbery was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the workshop. The police officials had constituted five special teams to nab the robbers.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, City Police Commissioner Sharanappa S D said the shop owner had lodged a complaint stating that only 800 grams of gold had been robbed. But, the seizure of remaining gold jewellery has been unaccounted for and the goldsmith is being interrogated for trying to evade the tax. The police officials launched a search operation to nab the other two persons who are absconding, he added.

Expert in designing

Farooq, who is an expert in designing Turkish-style jewellery in Dubai, came to Kalaburagi and started a gold business here a few years ago. He had reportedly suffered a loss of Rs 37 lakh in business for the last three to four months. He knew about the jewellery manufacturing shop being run by Mohammad Sabkatullah Mulik. Thus, the accused called Ayodhya Prasad from Mumbai and planned the robbery for 25 days along with Sohail who also joined hands with them. Prasad’s wife has been suffering from heart-related ailment and he claimed he had robbed the shop due to financial problems to support the treatment, Sharanappa said.

The accused travelled to Solapur from Kalaburagi Central Bus Stand soon after the robbery. Later, they travelled to Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In some places, he travelled in the general compartment of trains.

They could not sell the entire looted gold ornaments as the police was after them. However, they managed to sell ornaments worth Rs 4.80 lakh. One person has been arrested in Mumbai and two others in West Bengal, he explained.

All five teams conducted search operations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Telangana and succeeded in arresting three of the five accused, he stated.

The arrested persons are involved in 10-15 other cases and they are expected to reveal more information during the interrogation. The police commissioner handed over the letter of appreciation to the members of all five teams who cracked the robbery case. DCP Kanika Sikriwal and other police officials were present.