Kozhikode: In a significant breakthrough, the Kozhikode police apprehended one suspect in the Thamarassery Rana Gold jewellery theft case that occurred on January 24, 2023. The arrested individual, Navaf (27), from Poonoor, was caught on Wednesday morning by the probe team, who also recovered approximately 157 grams of gold from his rented residence at Pallipuram.
Navaf, during interrogation, revealed that the heist was carried out with the help of his brother, Nisar, and a friend. The trio executed the robbery by drilling through the shop's wall and used a gas cutter to open a safe. Although they concealed their identities with masks and obscured the shop's CCTV cameras with spray, police painstakingly reviewed nearly 100 CCTV footage from nearby buildings and focused on suspects living in rental accommodations to close in on Navaf.
After further scrutiny, the police discovered that Navaf and Nisar run a local chip shop in Korangad named KP Chips. Police also learned that the duo, along with an associate, is also linked to a prior theft on December 28, 2023, at Kunnummal Jewellery in Engapuzha, wherein they drilled into the store but only managed to steal 500 grams of silver jewellery and Rs. 10,000 in cash after failing to break open the gold safe. Navaf also has a previous conviction for mobile phone theft.
The case is being supervised by Superintendent of Police (SP) Aravind Kumar and led by DySP P Pramod.
