TN highway heist: 2 held in Tirupati with Rs 60 lakh stolen

Days after the daring daylight highway heist of nearly Rs one crore worth jewellery in Tamil Nadu, a woman and her son have been arrested in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and a major portion of the loot recovered from them, police said Friday.

Crime wing police in Tirupati arrested Shama (46) and her son Mohammed Salim, hailing from Tiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu, Thursday after they were found moving in a suspicious manner with a huge bag at a pilgrim accommodation centre there, police in the temple town said.

Police said they recovered about Rs 60 lakh worth gold and silver jewels from the two.

On January 7, a 10-member gang had driven away a car with Rs 98.05 lakh worth jewellery belonging to Kerala-based Kalyan Jewellers after waylaying the vehicle and dragging out two employees of the firm at K G Chavadi near Coimbatore.

The gold and silver jewels were being transported from Thrissur in Kerala to Coimbatore when the robbery occurred at around 11.30 am.

Shama's another son Firoz along with his friends had allegedly committed the heist and after sharing a quantity of the booty among his friends, he had handed over the rest to her and his brother in Tiruvallur, police in Tirupati said quoting preliminary investigation.

Since then, the two had been trying to sell the jewels and arrived in Tirupati two days ago.

Police said their counterparts in Coimbatore had been informed about the arrest and the two would be taken there after obtaining transit remand from a court here.

Coimbatore police said the recovered jewellery was part of the stolen gold and silver ornaments and they were already interrogating six people in connection with the crime.

In a related development, two other suspects who surrendered in a court in Chennai a week ago were brought to Coimbatore and produced before 7th Judicial Magistrate R Pandy who remanded them to six days police custody Friday.