Bangarupalem sub-inspector Rama Krishnaiah was presented a Letter of Appreciation in recognition of his services and his role in solving high-profile cases, at Madanapalle on Saturday.
Madanapalle sub-collector Chekuri Keerthi presented the letter to Mr. Krishnaiah during the 70th Republic Day Celebrations at Madanapalle.
Gold heist
Mr. Krishnaiah played a key role in nabbing the culprits behind the heist of gold jewellery worth ₹9 crore from a bus on December 10 last year.
A seven-member gang from Maharashtra tailed two executives of a Mumbai-based jewellery mart who were travelling to Bengaluru from Vizag carrying with them gold worth ₹9 crore. When the executives alighted from the bus at a restaurant near Bangarupalem, two of the gang members who were inside the bus decamped with the gold and fled with the help of the other five gang members who were following the bus in an SUV.
Swift investigation
A police complaint was lodged by the duo after which Mr. Krishnaiah swung into action and began scrutinising CCTV camera footage all the way from Visakhapatnam to Bangarupalem — a distance of over 600 km. Within a week, Mr. Krishnaiah was able to solve the mystery of the missing gold and arrested all the seven gang members from Chittoor district and Maharashtra.
In another case in December last year, Mr. Krishnaiah arrested a five-member gang who were cheating people by masquerading as policemen. The gang, led by a Chennai-based miscreant, would lure businessmen from Chennai to Chittoor on the pretext of selling them gold at cheaper rates and would later extort ₹5 lakh from them in the guise of police threatening to take action against them. Mr. Krishnaiah was successful in arresting the gang members within a couple of days after the crime took place under Bangarupalem station limits.
The police officer also played a major role in seizing costly SUVs worth crores of rupees and arresting inter-state gangs while crossing the borders towards Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after stealing the vehicles at various places in Chittoor district.