16 sent to jail for gold heist on Tamil Nadu-Kerala border

All the 16 people, including the mastermind of the daylight highway robbery of jewellery worth Rs 98 lakh, were produced before the seventh judicial magistrate court Tuesday and remanded in judicial custody, police said.

The 16 people were sent to the central jail here, the police said.

On January 7, the gang had driven away a car with the ornaments of a Kerala-based jewellery after intercepting the vehicle near here.

The gold and silver jewels, belonging to Kalyan Jewellers, were being transported from Thrissur in Kerala to the city by two employees of the firm when the robbery occurred at around 11.30 am.

When the vehicle with jewels reached a petrol pump at Chavadi on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, the gang, which was tailing it in two other vehicles, intercepted it and dragged out the two drivers by force.

The gang members then drove away the car with jewels, leaving their vehicles behind.

Immediately after the incident, police had formed four special teams to nab the culprits and managed to arrest the 16 people after Rs 60 lakh worth of jewellery were recovered from a mother-son duo from Tirupati, which led to the information about the mastermind.