Mumbai: The Nashik police arrested the mastermind of the interstate gang that was involved in the brazen robbery attempt at Muthoot Finance office on June 14 in which an internal auditor was shot dead. The police made the arrest within ten days of the robbery attempt, from Gujarat and said that other gang members are still on the run.
The arrested accused was identified as Jitendra Bahadur Singh, who was nabbed from Surat. The police said that they have identified at least five others who were part of that team, which attempted to loot the office of Muthoot Finance in Nashik but ratted out.
“Preliminary probe revealed that the robbery was pre-planned inside the prison and that the accused persons conducted reconnaissance of the spot on multiple occasions before the attempt, to check the presence of staffers and flow of customers,” said an officer of Nashik police.
The officials said that Singh was identified with the help of one of the three motorbikes that were seized from Ramshej area following the failed attempt. The second bike has also been traced back to another accused, police said.
The planning was done in February when the accused persons were lodged in the prison in another case and they met inside.
The investigators revealed that they hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Bihar. The names of the absconding accused have been identified as Parminder Singh, Subhash Gaur, Guruji, Akash Singh Rajput and Anuj Sahu alias Pappu, police said.
On June 14, the gang with masks landed at the finance company’s office at Untawadi with firearms, axe.
The attempt failed after one of the employees hit a siren and the accused persons panicked. Singh is suspected to have fired five shots some of which hit and killed Sajju Samuel (32), an auditor who had come from Kerala.
