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Muthoot robbery case: How CBI unmasked the faces behind one of the biggest gold heists

  • The Muthoot Robbery Case occurred in December 2016 in Cyberabad
  • A group of around 5 men, posing as CBI officers from Delhi, entered inside the office of Muthoot Finance in Cyberabad and looted it of 42 kg gold 
  • The heist reminded everyone of the Akshay Kumar starrer Special 26
Muthoot robbery case Rajaratnam meets his match in the CBI arrested from Dharavi

The Muthoot Finance robbery on December 28, 2016 has been touted to be Telangana’s biggest robbery till date. Five men posing as CBI officers stole 42 kg of gold from Muthoot Finance, located at Ramachandrapuram on the outskirts Hyderabad. The culprits behind the heist are now behind bars, thanks to the Mumbai branch, CBI.

Sunder Rajaratnam Kangalla has been quoted by many media outlets as being the kingpin behind this crime. He and his wife Radha Kangalla have been arrested in the case. They had given the police the slip and had been touring South India, namely Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Kerala and even had a brief holiday in Goa before heading back to their base in Dharavi.

The duo were arrested from Dharavi, late on Saturday and they have been handed over to the Cyberabad Police in Hyderabad. Only 3 kilos of gold have been recovered from their residence. After the heist, close to seven teams had been pressed into pursuing the case under Cyberabad Joint Commissioner of Police. Preliminary investigation revealed that the gang had previously used a similar modus operandi in Karnataka as well.

Soon the investigation yielded results and the police were able to trace out what exactly happened that day and since then they were shadowing the accused discretely to be able to nab them. Now the police have arrested gang members Lakshman Narayan Mudhang, Ganesh Pandurang Bhonsle alias Patil, Subhash Pujari Pandey, Kaala alias Lambu and Thukaram Gaikwad, in connection with this crime. 

According to police reports, the group conducted a recce of the area on December 23, for which they used a Scorpio and a bike, this information was derived from the CCTV footages of the area. The vehicles used had their numbers constantly changed, first they sported a MH(Maharashtra) registration, then a KA(Karnataka) registration and finally they used an AP(Andhra Pradesh) number on the day of the crime. The recce continued till December 27 and on the day of the crime six men came together to execute the plan.

Four people came to Muthoot Finance branch on December 28 morning and told the staff that they were CBI officials who wanted to check the bank’s records based on a tip-off they had received of irregularities in the operations there.

When the employees resisted, they were threatened using the CBI’s clout and finally when the lockers were opened the impersonators starting filling their bags with the gold and currency. The employees objected and that’s when they were shepherded into the bathroom by the robbers, who then decamped with the loot in a black Scorpio.

After the heist they left the city by train.

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