Revised: dkHyderabad: Less than a week after a daring dacoity at Khazana jewellery store at Chandanagar on Aug 12, two of the seven culprits involved in the heist have been arrested and police recovered 900 grams of stolen silver jewellery from their possession. The key accused, however, are yet to be arrested.Around 10.30am on Aug 12, six masked dacoits entered Khazana Jewellers on NH-65. Four of them carried firearms. After firing at deputy manager Satish Kumar and injuring him in the left knee, the accused escaped with 10 kilo gold-coated silver jewellery from the shop.Based on the complaint of the jewellery shop worker, the Chandanagar police had registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act on the same day. Special teams, comprising of personnel from Central Crime Station, Special Operations Team, law and order police, verified CCTV footage and cell phone data at different places and identified the suspects.By tracking the movements of the suspects, police arrested Ashish Kumar Singh, 22, from Pune on Friday and, on his confession, nabbed Deepak Kumar Sah, 22, from Nanakramguda. Police have recovered 900 grams of gold-coated silver jewellery from the duo.Ashish and Deepak, both from Saran in Bihar, were classmates in Intermediate. They came to Hyderabad in search of livelihood about two years ago and started doing welding work. The five other gang members, also from Bihar’s Saran and Siwan districts, contacted the duo recently to conduct a robbery at jewellery shops on the outskirts of the city. As per their plan, the accused from Bihar reached the city on July 31 and moved into a room rented by Deepak in Asbestos Colony, Jeedimetla. They also purchased two used bikes from A1 motors in Jagadgirigutta and conducted recce of some jewellery stores in Chandanagar, where security was lax and volume of gold in display was significant.On the day of the offence, Ashish joined the five other associates from Bihar. They removed number plates of the bikes. After the dacoity, a part of the stolen booty was handed over to Deepak, who did not directly participate in the offence.According to police, the main accused, who was yet to be arrested, was involved in 10 offences, including two murders, five Arms Act cases, two dacoities and two extortion cases in different states. The other accused were also involved in two to three offences each. “The gang was involved in similar jewellery shop robberies in West Bengal and Bihar. We suspect that they might have committed similar offences in Rajasthan and Maharashtra too,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Madhapur, G Vineeth said. The gang has reportedly procured firearms from Bihar and removed the number plates of bikes while committing the offence. After the dacoity, they escaped on the bikes for some distance and abandoned them. Later, they split up and went in different ways using public transport. Police were on the manhunt to nab the remaining accused.
