Four arrested for ₹1 crore Palladium theft in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: The Paravada police have arrested four individuals in connection with the theft of Palladium valued at over one crore rupees. Anakapalli District SP M. Deepika provided details about the case and the arrests during a press conference on Wednesday.

A complaint was filed on October 12 by S. Varadarajan, the director of technical support and unit head of a private company that manufactures metal on carbon catalysts, which include Palladium. On September 9, while drying Palladium in the production block, the facility was locked. When staff returned the next day, they discovered that the lock was missing and the dryer had been opened, with the Palladium stolen.

Following the complaint, an investigation followed, leading to the arrest of the four suspects on Tuesday, October 15, by Additional SP of Crimes L. Mohan Rao at a cremation ground, where the stolen metal was recovered.

The suspects have been identified as A1 Chintakayala Raju, 26 (Painter), A2 Muddanur Vineeth Verma, 27 (Electrician), A3 Chintakayala Murali, 23 (Helper) and A4 Kanumuri Ramachandra Raju, 23 (Assistant Production Manager)

During the press conference, SP Deepika explained that the suspects met at a hotel on the evening of October 5 to plan the theft. On that same day, A2 and A4 disabled the CCTV cameras and created a duplicate key for the dryer lock. Subsequently, on the night of October 9, A1 and A3 scaled the plant's wall, unlocked the dryer using their key, and stole the Palladium. A1 stored the stolen Palladium at his home while attempting to find buyers for it before being apprehended by police.