Accused and his wife held in Muthoot robbery

Mumbai: Days after touring in South India and holidaying in Goa, one of the main accused in the Cyberabad’s Muthoot Finance robbery case of December last year, was arrested from Dharavi by the Mumbai crime branch late on Saturday.

The accused, identified as Sunder Rajaratnam, who is in his 40s, is suspected to possess half of the robbed 42 kg gold.

Officials have arrested his wife Radha too in connection with the case and they were produced in

the holiday court on Sunday. They will be handed over to the Cyberabad police, who are investigating the case.

A team of unit V of crime branch executed the arrested, after the officials received a tip off that the absconding accused was spotted in Dharavi.

“Sunder and at least four another wanted accused were touring places and temples in South India following the robbery. They also had a brief vacation in Goa, after which the accused parted ways and Sunder came to Dharavi around 4 days ago,” said a crime branch officer.

The accused has at least 15 cases of robbery and assault in Dharavi police station and was not active in crime for around 15 years, before being part of the crime at Cyberabad, investigators said.

Crime branch officials said that their counterparts in Cyberabad could make the recovery of the robbed gold, as the booty was not found at his Dharavi residence.

Sunder allegedly posed as a police officer in order to gain entry inside the office of the finance company. The armed robbery was subsequently executed by the gang who fled with 41.8kg gold and cash of around Rs 92,000.

What is the case?

On December 28 last year, a group of around 5 men, posing as CBI officers from Delhi, entered inside the office of Muthoot Finance in Cyberabad. Soon after, the gang locked up the employees inside a washroom at gunpoint, and executed the robbery. The gang had travelled to the office in a SUV bearing fake registration number that was captured in some of the CCTV cameras.