NE NEWS SERVICE
BHARUCH, NOV 18
Four persons were arrested from Surat city for allegedly decamping with cash and gold jewellery worth Rs 3.32 crore from a gold finance firm’s branch in Bharuch district, police said on Wednesday.
The police have nabbed Mohsin Malek (33), Mohammad Ali Nakhuda (29), Mohsin Khalifa (28) and Salim Khan (40) for allegedly looting the Ankleshwar branch of the gold finance firm 10 days ago, an official said.
Malek, the mastermind of the gang, had worked as a recovery manager with the firm”s Vapi town branch in 2011, Bharuch district”s superintendent of police R V Chudasama said.
The police have also recovered cash and jewellery worth Rs 2.65 crore from the accused and efforts are on to seize the remaining stolen bounty, the official said.
“On November 9, the accused, armed with a revolver and knives, had entered the firm”s branch in Ankleshwar and fled with valuables worth Rs 3.32 crore. We were able to trace the car used in the crime, which led to the arrests,” Chudasama said.
Since Malek had a fair idea about the functioning of the branches, he hatched a plan and involved three others to carry out a heist, he said, adding that two other accused are history-sheeters.
Malek and Khan have also admitted to their involvement in a similar robbery that took place in Chikhli town of Navsari district in 2017.
“Both Malek and Khan along with two others looted cash and jewellery worth Rs 2 crore from the same company’s gold loan branch in Chikhli in 2017, and that case had remained undetected till now,” Chudasama said.
The gang had conducted a recce of some other gold finance firm branches in south Gujarat, which they had planned to target soon, the official added.
