Muthoot robbery: Kingpin produced in Sangareddy court

Hyderabad: Sunder Rajaratnam, one of the kingpins behind the RC Puram Muthoot robbery, was brought to Hyderabad and produced in a court at Sangareddy on Tuesday. Police said that it was Sunder and his friend Lakshman, another mastermind, who planned the robbery, inspired by the Bollywood movie Special 26, preten Sunder Rajaratnam, one of the kingpins behind the RC Puram Muthoot robbery, was brought to Hyderabad and produced in a court at Sangareddy on Tuesday. ding to be CBI officials.  He sent his men to survey the building and figured out a safe exit route from Telangana days before the robbery.

After stealing 42 kg gold the gang split. Sunder gave his gold to one Roshan Yadav, who is absconding.  Sunder then started touring temples across India to escape cops. A team of the Cyberabad police tracked down Sunder a day ago to Chunabhatti, a few km away from Dharavi, with the help of the Mumbai police, and arrested him. “He was touring Goa, Coimbatore and temples in different parts of the country. He kept moving with his family to escape,” said Janaki Sharmila, DCP crimes, Cyberabad.

The police kept a watch on Sunder’s movement. “He was in Mumbai to collect the rest of his share in the booty when we arrested him,” said Madhapur DCP Vishwa Prasad. Hailing from Mahbubnagar Sunder grew up in Mumbai as his father was employed in the Railways. “Growing up, he became a criminal and eventually joined gangster D.K. Rao. He then got involved in several robbery and assault cases. Around 15 cases were booked against him by the Mumbai police,” said a senior Cyberabad police official. “He was once arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA),” he added.

Sunder and the other main suspect Lakshman met while smuggling liquor to Gujarat. The other suspects too were active in this. They later came up with a plan to rob the Muthoot branch in RC Puram.  During the robbery, Sunder pretended to be a traffic cop. On December 28, 2016, five men, posing as CBI officers from Delhi, entered the office of Muthoot Finance in Cyberabad. The gang locked up employees inside a washroom at gunpoint and grabbed the gold stock. The gang came to the Muthoot office in an SUV bearing a fake registration number which was captured by some CCTV cameras.