“We were planning to watch the India vs New Zealand ODI match (January 11) in Vadodara with the stolen money,” Riku Amar Singh, the mastermind, told investigators, according to court documents. Unfortunately for Riku and co., their heist remained unfruitful as they missed witnessing another Virat Kohli masterclass in a chase that bore India victory. They were brought back to Chennai, and in an expedited trial, a city court recently sentenced the four men to six years’ imprisonment after finding them guilty of the break -in.
According to the police, the gang members Riku Amar Singh Chauhan (27), Jugendra Singh (19), Abishek Singh (20) and Yogesh Kumar (32) broke into JSM Forex Pvt Ltd in Manapakkam during the early hours of January 8. They used crowbars from an adjacent construction site to break open the shutter and gained entry, according to the police. “Two of them waited outside as a look-out while two went inside the office to execute their plan,” an official said.
Joseph Dominic (38), the firm’s owner, checked the CCTV footage from the office as soon as he woke up. As he noticed the shutter was tampered with, he alerted the police control room.
The police found that the gang escaped with Rs 25,000, which was in the cash chest. On going through the CCTV footage, the police observed the gang boarding an auto rickshaw, which dropped them at a lodge in Triplicane. Police zeroed in on the auto rickshaw and questioned the driver.
Fortunately for the investigators, the burglars paid the auto rickshaw through GPay, which helped police get the phone number of the person who made the transaction and zero in on the location. According to the police, immediately after the break-in, the gang went to the lodge in Triplicane, took their belongings and went to the Chennai Central railway station and boarded a train.
The next day, on January 9, all four of them were holed up in a lodge in Surat when Surat Police’s DCB (Detection of Crime Branch) apprehended them, based on a tip-off from the Chennai police. And as the turn of events would have it, they were not meant to be spectators at the January 11 ODI match between India and New Zealand at Vadodara. A city police team brought them back to the city.
The Nandambakkam police quickly completed the investigation and filed a final report before the Alandur Judicial Magistrate Court. On June 29, the court found all four accused guilty and sentenced them to six years imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 80,000 each on them.
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