Jewellery heist cracked, gold trader, five others held

The city police on Monday arrested a jewellery shop owner and five others for kidnapping an employee of a neighbouring jewellery shop and robbing him of 2 kg gold. Police recovered 16 gold biscuits and six mobile phones from the accused.

The incident had taken place on Oct 15 at the Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Secunderabad.

The accused are - V Bikshapathi, 28, owner of Sri Venkateswara Jewellery Mart, Madikonda in Warangal district, P Praveen, 28, salesman in Laxmi Sai Jewellers, Hanumakonda, K Gowtham, 25, driver in Hanumakonda municipality, D Sampath, 32, driver in Hanumakonda municipality, Ch Satyanarayana, 24, car driver and R Srinivas, 30, car driver, resident of Shambunipet, Warangal.

Disclosing the details at a press conference here Monday, Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma said that the key accused Bikshapathi had incurred losses in his business. He revealed the same to Praveen, a distant relative and classmate, who was also facing money issues. To overcome their problems, they planned to rob gold from Rajeswar.

Bikshapathi and Praveen used to visit Chanda Anjaiah Parameswar gold shop, located in Mahankali, to collect gold. They observed that Rajeswar, an employee of Om Jewellery shop, used to come frequently from Adilabad district to collect gold from the shop. Accordingly, they both hatched a plan to rob Rajeswar with the assistance of other accused.

“When Rajeswar visited Chanda Jewellers on Oct 15, Praveen passed on the information to Gawtham, Sampath, Satyanarayana and Srinivas who then lay in wait in a car. Bikshapathi and Vamsi Krishna followed the auto which the victim engaged to reach the bus stand with the gold he bought. Guided by Bikshapathi the other four accomplices followed them and then whisked away Rajeswar in their car. They took away the jewellery and abandoned him at Yousufguda,” the police commissioner said.