KOCHI: Ernakulam rural police which is investigating the robbery of 20 kg gold worth around Rs 6 crore by two bike-borne assailants from a car while transporting it to a refinery plant at Edayar in Binanipuram Police Station limits on Thursday night suspects a major conspiracy behind the act.
That none of the four persons in the car, who carried the gold, was seriously hurt or the car got serious damage except its smashed windows has left the police unconvinced about the story that has been told to them.
The police is also baffled that they were not even aware that such a firm that had been functioning for the past 25 years in that locality.
The pieces of evidence received from the spot suggest that such a robbery could not be operated without prior and specific knowledge about the movement of the consignment, police sources said.
The assailants robbed the gold which kept in two boxes in melted form reportedly belonging to major jewelers from the car in front of CGR Metalloys, a gold refining firm at Edayar, at around 10 pm on Thursday. The robbers left behind one box containing the remaining five kilogram of gold.
The robbers followed the car from a distance and committed the robbery when it was stopped in front of the gate of the firm.
Police sources said that the gold used to be transferred along the same route between a certain time in the night, and prior planning might have gone into the robbery based on this. Statements have been taken from the persons inside the car, who were also the employees of the firm.
The cops also received the CCTV footage of the assailants with their motorcycle. But the visuals are unclear so that registration number could not be traced. "A hunt for the suspect is already on. The evidence from the crime scene has been collected. Finger prints are currently under examination," a senior police official said.
Ernakulam rural district police chief Rahul R. Nair, additional SP M.J. Sojan and Aluva DySP K.A. Vidyadharan visited the spot.
