Udupi : The Udupi district police have arrested seven persons in connection with the abduction and robbery of a gold trader from Kerala, which took place on March 17.

Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, K.T. Balakrishna, Superintendent of Police, said that Dilip T.D., a gold trader from Thrissur, had lodged a complaint stating that after selling gold ornaments to a jewellery shop in Hiriyadka, he had boarded a bus from there to Udupi, three persons quarrelled with him on the bus and forced him to get off it at Manipal.

They then abducted him in a car, which had three occupants. A gang member showed him a pistol and robbed him of 1,500 grams of gold ornaments valued at ₹ 40 lakh and ₹ 2.57 lakh in cash. They later dropped him near Nandikur. A case was registered at the Hiriyadka police station.

Mr. Dilip used to bring gold ornaments from Thrissur in Kerala and sell them to small jewellery shops in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts and collect cash. This was going on for several years.

The police formed five teams to arrest the accused. During investigation, the police found that several traders from Kerala were selling gold ornaments and collecting cash. The police had already asked Mr. Dilip to submit sale documents for the gold ornaments he had sold.

The police arrested seven persons in the case and recovered 876 grams of gold ornaments worth ₹ 24 lakh and ₹ 60,000 in cash.

They had also seized three cars in connection with the crime.

While investigating the case, the police found that the main accused, Harikrishna Bhat (25), owned a jewellery shop in Perdoor. Mr. Dilip used to come to his shop to sell gold ornaments and collect cash.

He noticed that Mr. Dilip used to come alone. Bhat then hatched a plan with his six accomplices and abducted Mr. Dilip and robbed of gold ornaments and the cash.

The six other accused are Irfan (30) from Hemmady, Javed (25) from Kodavoor, Ashraf (34) from Belapu, Ilahid (24) from Hemmady, Ravichandran N. (41) from Kergal, and Sumanth (24) from Kirimanjeshwara.