City Reports

Muthoot gold robbery: Breakthrough likely soon as police stumbles upon clues

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February 1, 2018, 4:47 pm

gold robbery jaipur

Muthoot Finance company's office in Jaipur where gold robbery took place.

Jaipur: Three days after robbers looted over 26 kg gold from Muthoot Finance in Mansarovar, the Jaipur police has stumbled upon some clues. They have studies footages of hundreds of CCTVs installed on the route which the robbers used to escape after looting the finance company’s branch. The robbers had fled towards Tonk via Vatika area in the city.

A task force consisting of city police, Jaipur commissionerate’s crime branch and Rajasthan police’s special operations group (SOG) has been put together to crack the case. The robbery has become a major embarrassment for the city as the Congress leaders are taking a dig at the BJP-led Rajasthan government for two robberies on two consecutive days when the party’s national president Amit Shah was in Jaipur. While robbers looted gold from Muthoot Finance on Saturday, the UCO Bank branch of Raja Park in Jaipur was robbed of Rs 15 lakh on Friday.

The police have studied the footages of CCTVs installed in the 40 km radius of the finance company’s branch.

A dog squad led the cops towards New Sanganer Road following which they zeroed in on CCTVs installed in this area.

Sources said that footages of some CCTVs installed on Tonk Road caught robbers escaping towards Tonk via Vatika.

Some people were detained for interrogation on Sunday.

An SOG team led by ASP Karan Sharma is studying similar gold robbery cases that were reported recently across the country. The police didn’t rule out the possibility that the robbers were professional criminals and could have been involved in similar loots in the past. One of the robbers had even boasted of being a professional robber while talking to the branch manager Satyanarayan Toshniwal.

The smartness of the manager saved 31 kg gold from being robbed, police officials said.

Muthoot manager

Manager Satyanarayan Tosniwal.

There was a total of 57 kg gold jewellery in the branch’s lockers. When the robbery was under progress, Toshniwal insisted that he wanted to go to the washroom as he was sick. He went into the washroom and sounded a security alarm. The robbers had stuffed nearly 26.7 kg gold into a bag, but they had to leave the god and run away due to the alarm.

It was earlier suspected that the robbers had taken away 31 kg of gold, but the police checked the records and found that only 26.7 kg gold was missing. It was worth Rs 5 crore and had been put as collateral for a loan of Rs 3 crore.

The police have been interrogating the security guard since the incident as he didn’t resist at all. He handed over his gun to the robbers without putting up any resistance.

Four robbers had walked into the office of Muthoot Finance situated at Madhyam Marg on Rajat Path around 12.48 pm on Friday. There were four employers and two customers in the loan finance company office. The robbers asked them to stand in a corner and took the keys of the locker from the manager. When the manager, Satyanarayan Tosniwal, refused to hand over the keys, they thrashed him. The manager relented following which two robbers opened the locker and collected the gold.

It took the robbers hardly 23 minutes to carry out the robbery.

Related stories:

Gehlot takes a dig at Raj govt for 2 daylight robberies during Amit Shah’s visit

Rs 9 crore gold robbery in Mansarovar: Muthoot Finance office robbed at gun points

First published: July 24, 2017