CHENNAI: The special teams of the Railway Police, who are investigating the theft of diamond jewellery worth more than Rs 3 crore from the Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Egmore Ananthapuri Express, got an important break after the smartwatch that the jeweller had placed inside the bag helped the police find that the thief got down at Tiruchy Junction railway station.
Though the thief dumped the gadget before fleeing with the jewels, it was the first real lead in the investigation, which enabled the police to narrow their search.
Deepakshan Shetty (40), a sales representative of a jewellery in T Nagar, boarded the first-class AC coach at Madurai around 10 pm on Thursday carrying a bag containing the diamond jewellery. He kept the bag near his head before going to sleep.
When the train reached Chennai Egmore railway station on Friday (July 24) morning, Shetty realised that the bag was missing.
He informed his employer and approached the Egmore Railway Police. During questioning, he claimed to have seen the bag last when the train crossed Maraimalai Nagar.
As the theft was believed to have occurred before the train reached Tambaram, he was directed to lodge a complaint with the Tambaram Railway Police.
Following the complaint, the Railway Police constituted three special teams and began examining CCTV footage from stations including Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Vruddhachalam, and Tiruchy to identify suspicious passengers who boarded or got off the train.
The investigation took a turn after police learnt that the stolen bag also contained a smartwatch with live location tracking. The jewellery shop owner had linked the smartwatch to his mobile phone, which indicated its location near Tiruchy Junction.
Based on the GPS location, one of the special teams rushed to Tiruchy and recovered the smartwatch from a bush about 500 metres from the railway station early on Saturday (July 25).
The police now suspect the theft took place between Madurai and Tiruchy. Investigators believe the accused got off at Tiruchy, opened the bag near the station, discarded the smartwatch after noticing it and fled with the diamond jewellery.
The police are also probing whether the accused had prior information that Shetty was travelling with high-value jewellery.