Train Robbery, Seven Held by Udupi Police

Train Robbery, Seven Held by Udupi Police

Udupi: “The Udupi district police cracked the robbery case of an executive of Mumbai-based gold making firm who was looted by armed robbers of 4.11 kg gold, worth Rs 1 crore, on the Thiruvananthapuram bound Mumbai train near Padubidri on September 17”, said SP Dr Sanjeev Patil in a press meet held at his office here on December 5.

The accused have been identified as Mithun Vanian @ Bhairav Singh Rana @ Rohith Shetty (31) from Madikeri presently residing in Maharastra, Pintu Arjun Chowdhary (32) a native of Bihar, Yogishwar (24) native of Rajasthan, Mukhtar Ibrahim (24), Riyaz (30) from Kasargod, PK Murugan (49) from Thrissur and Prabhulal Gurjar (30) native of Rajasthan.

Addressing the mediapersons SP Dr Sanjeev Patil said, “On September Rajendra Singh, an executive of Mumbai-based gold making firm namely G M Gold Pvt Ltd was called out in the sleeper class S-7 and his suitcase containing gold bangles was taken away after brandishing a knife and pistol. The robbers who threatened the victim Rajendra later escaped at the Surathkal Railway station with the loot. Singh had received minor injuries as he tried to confront the robbers running with the valuables. Rajendra used to travel frequently to various places including Thiruvananthapuram. He would go with the latest design of gold ornaments to various places and get orders.

The police have seized 1.06 Kilograms of gold worth of 31.80 lakhs, a country revolver with 2 bullets, Gold melting machine worth Rs 10000, a Hyundai car worth Rs 8 lakh, six mobiles, one knife and cash Rs 3720 from the accused.

SP Patil further said that the team initially started the inquiry with basic clues which they gathered in the market in Mumbai. The police had a lengthy tour which covered CST, Panvel, Javeri Bazar, Giri Gav, Mumbai Central, Thana, Vashi in Mumbai and Udaipur, Mavali, Raj Samand, Sukher, Pathepur in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad in Gujarat where the accused were spread out.

Elaborating on the modus operandi, the police chief said that the accused number three Yogeshwar is the mastermind behind the crime. He was jailed in Udaipur on the charges of murder where he met the accused number six Devraj Takur. Yogeshwar was sacked from in G M Gold where he was employed and where the victim Rajendra Singh Shakthvakth is working. Yogeshwar shared his grievances with Takur, who assured to help him out. Yogeshwar was released from jail in March, 2017 and he met the accused number nine Prabhulala Gurjar, an ex-employee of G M Gold. The later too agreed to help Yogeshwar. Yogeshwar also sought the help of Takur, who in turn contacted Mithun alias Rohith Shetty and asked him to help Yogeshwar in the dacoity. Yogeshwar later as per the direction of Takur contacted Mithun Vaniyan. Mithun is the accused number one and he, along with the accused number two Pintu Arjun Chaudhary, accused number four Mukhtar Ibrahim and accused five Riyaz K from Kerala hatched a plan and asked them to come to Karwar or Udupi railway station.

The initial attempt to rob the gold transported by G M Gold had failed although they had planned it well. They were not able to collect information of the train wherein the gold was transported to Delhi. Finally, they embarked upon the new plan wherein they looted Rajendra Singh Shakthvakth while he was travelling to Trivandrum.

Under the directions of IGP western Range Hemanth Nimbalkar and under the guidance of Dr Sanjeev M Patil SP Udupi, Kumarchandra ASP Udupi, Rishikesh Sonavane ASP Karkala, the operation was carried out by V S Halamoorthy CPI Kaup, Sathish M P PSI Padubidri, staffs of Padubibidri Police station namely Sudhakar, Rajesh, Praveen Kumar, Narayana, Umesh, DCIB team members ASI Ravichandra, HC Raghavendra, PC Shivananda, Ravikumar, Sandeep Shetty, Sharanappa, Harish Babu, Raghavendra, Jagdeesh, Khalid. Udaipur Rajasthan IGP Anand Srivathsav, SP and ASP’s of Rajasthan were part of the investigations.