Coimbatore Jos Alukkas heist: Main accused disguised as Sabarimala pilgrim held in Chennai

Police receive a tip-off that after the robbery, Vijay (24) went to Andhra Pradesh’s Srikalahasti town in the guise of an Ayyappa devotee.

The arrest of M Vijay (24), of Dharmapuri, followed that of his wife Narmadha (24) and her mother Yogarani.

The Coimbatore police have arrested the main accused in last month’s 4.8kg jewellery heist at a Jos Alukkas showroom on his way back from Andhra Pradesh, where he had allegedly gone in the guise of a Sabarimala pilgrim.

The arrest of M Vijay (24), of Dharmapuri, followed that of his wife Narmadha (24) and her mother Yogarani, from whom the police had recovered over 4 kg of the stolen jewellery. Narmadha, a Sri Lankan refugee, was arrested from Anaimalai in Coimbatore district and Yogarani from a refugee camp in Dharmapuri district.

The police said they had received a tip-off that Vijay was in Srikalahasti town in Andhra Pradesh in the guise of a Sabarimala pilgrim. They arrested him in Chennai and seized 400g of jewellery from him.

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The Jos Alukkas showroom on 100 Feet Road in Gandhipuram was robbed of gold, platinum and diamond jewellery allegedly by Vijay in the early hours of November 28.

According to the police, there was a space between the main building and a side wall that was under construction. The accused allegedly gained access to the building through a trap door in the space. It was also said that the accused had used public transport to reach the showroom and go back after the heist.

Vijay has robbery cases booked against him at the Kambainallur police station in Dharmapuri as well as at the RS Puram station in Coimbatore, according to the police, who also said that his father Munirathinam had died by suicide while the heist investigation was underway.

Coimbatore Commissioner of Police V Balakrishnan earlier said that five special teams had been formed to investigate the case.

Janardhan Koushik

Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over five years of reporting experience in the industry. He has a keen interest in politics, sports, films, and other civic issues. Janardhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from SRM Arts and Science College and a PG Diploma in New Media from Asian College of Journalism, one of the top ranked journalism schools in India. He started his career with India Today group as a sub-editor as part of the sports team in 2016. He has also a wide experience as a script-writer having worked for short-films, pilot films as well as a radio jockey cum show producer while contributing for an online Tamil FM. As a multilingual journalist, he actively tracks the latest development in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry utiling his well-established networks to contribute significantly to breaking news stories. He has also worked as a sports analyst for Star Sports. ... Read More

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