A four-member inter-state gang of thieves, hailing from West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with theft of gold jewellery from across the state.
The four-- Mumtaz Begum (50), Yasin Sheikh (54), Nobiya Beevi (45) and Amina Sheikh (55), hail from Pargana in West Bengal.
Police said the four visited a top jewellery store here on Wednesday and expressed a desire to see some gold chains. The salesman showed them some chains, but seeing their odd behaviour, he grew suspicious. The four soon left the shop.
On examination of the CCTV clippings, the store manager realised that they were familiar faces and found out that the four had visited the shop in 2011 when some jewels had been stolen. The police were immediately informed.
The four were picked up from a lodge here yesterday and on questioning confessed that they came to Kerala every year for robbing well-known jewellery stores, police said.
They told police that they had stolen jewels from stores in Bangalore, Mangalore, Kozhikode and Kochi and cases have been registered against them in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
About Rs 1.50 lakh and some imitation jewels were seized, which were used to replace original ones at the stores, police added.
