One of the accused, Surendar (35), was working with the eatery chain, known for its biriyani, for about 12 years and was a ‘trusted’ manager of the company to receive the daily collection from all its restaurants and account them at the main office in Mannadi.

Surendar approached Vyasarpadi police in the zero hours of Thursday claiming six men on three bikes robbed him of Rs 11.88 lakh on Stephenson Road when he was on his way to Mannadi. Police swung into action and combed the CCTV footage from nearby areas when they found one of the gang members was none other than the complainant’s colleague, Prakash, working with the company for the last few years.

Police then quizzed Surendar, who after refuting any role, finally admitted to staging robbery. Police picked up Prakash and retrieved the entire cash and based on his inputs, four others — Velayutham (26), ‘Suruttai’ Prakash (26), Samuel alias Thamizhselvan (26) and Nirmal Kumar (30) — were secured. All six were remanded in judicial custody on .Thursday.