Woman employee of pvt finance firm, lover arrested for robbery

Coimbatore: The city police on Tuesday arrested J Renuga Devi, 26, of Chettipalayam Road in Podanur, an employee of Muthoottu Mini Financiers Private Limited and her paramour A Suresh, 32, of Kempatty Colony, for looting 803 sovereigns of gold ornaments and Rs Rs 1.34lakh from the firm’s branch at Ramanathapuram here on Saturday.
Police have recovered 597.5 sovereigns of gold and Rs Rs 1lakh from Suresh, employed with a telecom service provider. “He was staying at Kempatty Colony with his wife and children and frequently visited the finance firm to pledge gold ornaments. He befriended Devi, who is also married and has children. The friendship slowly turned into a sexual relationship. Suresh, who had invested lakhs of rupees in the share market, was facing losses. He had borrowed huge sums but was not able to repay,” a police officer said.
Looking for easy money, Suresh planned the heist with Devi’s help. “As per their plan, on Saturday evening, she kept the main locks of the strongroom open. The other woman staff, Divya, was unaware of the plan. Suresh entered the office and knocked Divya unconscious. He collected the valuables from the locker and fled. Devi, meanwhile, pretended to be unconscious,” the officer told TOI.
To divert police investigation, Suresh left for Podanur railway station in an autorickshaw. He spent some time at the station and returned home.
The city police questioned Devi, who was admitted in a private hospital, on Monday night. She told police that the robber spoke a mix of Hindi and Tamil. Initially, police suspected the robber to be from some other state. But the autorickshaw driver, who dropped Suresh at the Podanur station, told police that the man spoke to him in chaste Tamil. It led police to collect call details of Devi. When police confronted her with the details of the calls she had made to Suresh, Devi confessed to the crime. Police arrested Suresh from his house on Tuesday morning. “He had melted all the ornaments. He knew how to melt gold as his father was a goldsmith,” deputy commissioner P Perumal said.