CCTV footage helps city cops crack whodunit

The incident was almost like a scene from a Hollywood whodunit — a man boards a plane, but finds costly jewellery missing when it lands. Initially, it looked like a pretty tough case but the Chennai suburban police were able to crack it, thanks to some diligent investigative work and long hours of gazing at CCTV footage.

The crime took place on December 4, when T Nagar resident WR Vasudevan (47) took the 9.30am Kingfisher Airlines flight to Mumbai. On reaching his destination, Vasudevan realized that the diamond jewellery, worth Rs 14 lakh, which he had kept in his hand baggage, was missing.

Vasudevan was confused as to whether he had forgotten the jewellery in the autorickshaw, which he took from his house to the airport. But after checking with his family, he was convinced that he had been robbed at the airport. He tried to lodge a complaint with the Mumbai airport police, who directed him to register the complaint at Chennai since the flight originated from the city.

V Varadharaju, deputy commissioner of police (St Thomas Mount), said a police team monitored video footage recorded by CCTV cameras at Chennai airport on December 4 between 5am and 10am. The CCTV footage showed that a three-member gang had targeted Vasudevan while he was waiting at the Kingfisher Airlines counter to collect his boarding pass around 8am.

After watching the video footage for over 10 hours, the police identified the accused. The trio had entered the airport at 5am and had randomly targeted Vasudevan, who was carrying jewellery his sister had ordered from a shop in Parrys. While two persons covered the hand baggage of the passenger, the third removed a bag containing the jewellery. The gang also wanted to catch the 9.30am flight to Mumbai but as no tickets were available, they took the Jet Airways flight at 10am.

Suburban police commissioner SR Jangid said that a team, headed by Central Crime Branch assistant commissioner S Jayakumar and inspector Pradeep, spent a week in Mumbai following up clues.

“The names on the boarding cards were fake and the cellphone numbers either did not belong to the trio or were not in use,” said an official.

Thanks to help from Mumbai police, the team narrowed in on the accused at Andheri in Mumbai, from where Ushakanth Janardhan and Dwarakesh Gowda were arrested on Wednesday.

They were brought to the city on Thursday, and remanded in police custody till February 8. A search is on for the third gang member, Joginder Singh.

Source: Times of India