Gold ‘heist’ plan of fake BIS officials fails, 4 held

The accused have been identified as Sampath Kumar, 55, from Aluva in Kerala; Sandeep Sharma, 48, and Avinash Kumar, 27, from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh; and Joshi R Thomas, 54, from Thrissur in Kerala.

A police officer said, “They (the accused) claimed that they were from the Chennai office and started grading and weighing gold ornaments. They then sealed the ornaments and asked the shop owner to visit the Chennai office with proper documents and get the ornaments released.

“But one of the employees got suspicious and chased the fake BIS officers while they were trying to get into a Toyota Innova Car. At one point, they tried to run over the shop employee but he managed to escape and informed the police. When their escape plan failed, the four entered a house, told the occupants that they met with an accident, and sought their help. The KR Puram police reached the house where the suspects were hiding and arrested them.”

The officer added that a search was underway to trace a fifth suspect, Ravi.

The four have been booked under Sections 395 (dacoity), 463 (forgery), 307 (attempt to murder), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 419 (cheating by personation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.