Mangaluru : Police arrested ten persons in connection with the dacoity at Ulaibettu on June 21, under the Mangaluru rural police station limits.

The arrested accuesed identified as Vasanth Kumar (42) from Neermarga, Ramesh (42) from Neermarga, Raymond D’Souza (47) from Bantwal, Balakrishna (48) from Kasargod, Zakir Hussain (56) from Thrissur, Vinoj (38) from Thrissur, Sajeesh MM (32) from Thrissur, John Bosco Biju G (41) from Trivandrum, Sathish Babu (44) from Thrissur, and Shijo Devasi (38) from Kerala.

On June 21, eight to nine masked men barged into the house, threatened the PWD contractor Padmanabha Kotian, his wife, and children, and looted cash and jewelry worth Rs 9 lakh. They also assaulted the contractor after he resisted and took his vehicle. They later abandoned his vehicle midway and escaped in an Innova.

Vasanth Poojary, who had been working under the contractor as a lorry driver for the past four years and is also a member of the gram panchayat, was involved in the crime. Vasanth discussed the cash in the contractor’s residence with Ramesh Poojary, who works in a bakery. Both accused then discussed the plan with a third person, Raymond D’Souza, who is a mason, and he contacted the fourth accused, Balakrishna.

The four local accused—Vasanth, Ramesh, Raymond, and Balakrishna—planned the dacoity. Balakrishna then got in touch with a Kerala team led by John Bosco.

The plan was made eight months ago. The Kerala team visited Mangaluru and asked Ramesh and Vasanth to prepare a sketch and map of the area to execute the dacoity.

To develop interest, the local accused told the Kerala team that the contractor had over Rs 100 to Rs 300 crores, which motivated them to get involved in the dacoity.

Four days before the dacoity, the team arrived in Mangaluru and stayed in a hotel. They attempted to execute the plan on June 18 but were unsuccessful. They managed to execute the plan on June 21. They conversed in Hindi to mislead the victims into thinking the accused were from outside the state.

“Still, 4-5 more arrests need to be made in this case. Believing they could loot Rs 100 to 300 crores, they brought more than 20 gunny bags and equipment to remove the tiles of the master bedroom, assuming the money was hidden underneath the floor.

Police had formed three teams to nab the culprits as it was a blind case without a single clue. I congratulate the DCP, ACP, and CCB staff for relentlessly working to crack this case over the last 15 days,” the police commissioner said.