Nephew, friends held in major Kovai robbery case

Police identified the four other accused as Ramesh’s friends S Babu (37), N Kannan alias Nandha (35), K Vadivel (34) and V Arun (26).

The police said Easwaran and Ramesh were running a smithy. The duo also used to deliver jewellery to a shop in Udhagamandalam. On Monday, Easwaran was on his way to the jeweller with eight necklaces (725 g) he had made and two (155 g) that Ramesh had made. Inquiry revealed that Ramesh had conspired with the fellow accused to rob Easwaran. On the same day, when Easwaran was waiting to catch a bus to Udhagamandalam, Ramesh made the identity of his uncle known to the gang, which swung into action.

The gang which came in a taxi, offered to drop Easwaran at Udhagamandalam and robbed him at knife point. They then shared the loot. All the five were apprehended in the late hours of Thursday and the entire loot was recovered.

They were produced before the court on Friday and lodged in the Coimbatore Central prison. 

Gold ornaments weighing over one kilogram were seized from three female passengers by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIR) sleuths at the airport here on Friday. It is said, while the officials were involved in regular checking, the sleuths found gold in the form of ornaments and unfinished gold from three women passengers. Two of them (Jeyaprabha and Jagadeeshwari from Madurai) who arrived by the Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur, had 492 g of gold concealed in their inner wear, in the form of chains and bangles. 

Similarly, Maharaj Begum of Virudhachalam, who arrived by the Tiger Airways flight, was carrying two unfinished gold rings weighing 50 g.