With the arrest of four persons, including three of a family, the Varanasi Police has claimed to have cracked the multi-crore robbery at Sitaram Jewellers in Thatheri Bazar of Chowk on Saturday. While 265 grams of gold, two pistols and two cellphones were recovered from the arrested, a major part of the booty is yet to be recovered and the kingpin is on the run.
On April 8, over half a dozen criminals raided three jewellery shop and made off with gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 3 crore. The daylight robbery elicited strong reaction and jewellers downed their shutters.
The STF and Crime Branch were handed over the investigations. Taking cue from CCTV footage, the police also released sketches of two criminals. later, several police teams raided a number of places in Varanasi, adjoining districts and also in Bihar.
The STF team assisted by Varanasi Police succeeded in dropping the net on four persons - Shivam Sharma, his father Sudhir Nath Sharma, mother Vineeta Sharma and Zeeshan of Chowk area. They told the police that Aman Kumar Soni, Faizan, Pappu aka Nate of Chowk, Azad of Chandauli, Manoj and two others helped them in carrying out the heist. The arrested accused were produced before the media by the SSP Nitin Tiwari on Thursday.