Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 30: In a major breakthrough, the policemen of Suratkal station have been able to take into possession, a man named Vikas (26), a resident of Ahmed Nagar, Pune, in connection with an armed robbery in Hosabettu village. Reportedly, the Kerala police, who had nabbed the accused, have handed him over to the policemen here. Vikas is said to be the main accused in an incident of armed robbery that occurred at Hosabettu in the wee hours on October 28 this year.

A armed gang had entered the home of Subhaschandra Shetty located as Hosabettu near Navagiri Hall early morning on October 28 this year. They had broken open the doors of the house, tied up the family members, and had then taken away cash and gold ornaments worth seven lac rupees, and fled in a Honda City car, valued at about eight lac rupees, parked in the said house. The robbers seemed to be a having definite clue that cash would be found in the said house. The car had been found abandoned in Bhatkal the next day.

The policemen have gathered information that the gang members had drafted the plan of robbery in advance. They had come to Suratkal from Kochi, had liquor in a bar on Bajpe Road in Suratkal and dinner at the nearby Punjabi Dhaba. They then spent time behind a petrol bunk at Hosabettu till after midnight, before proceeding to Subhaschandra Shetty’s house.

It is said that they had planned to rob a luxury bungalow in Kochi earlier to the said incident. As they mistakenly pressed the calling bell while trying to switch off the lights of that house, the house owner had come out with a gun in his hand. They then ran away from there, taking along the car found in the house, abandoned it in the local railway station and escaped. Relating to the robbery of eight sovereigns of gold from a house located near the home of the Kerala Chief Minister, the policemen of that state, acting on important clues, caught hold of Vikas, it is gathered.

The policemen are now trying to nab the other eight gang members, all of whom are said to be from Ahmed Nagar. They have also found out the place where the robbers had sold the gold ornaments they had been taken away from Hosabettu. The gang is also believed to have got involved with such other operations in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.