In one of Bengaluru’s most audacious daylight heists, 36 kg of gold and ₹3 lakh in cash were looted from Chemmanur Jewellery in Kammanahalli on August 11, 2007. The robbers, masked and armed, stormed in at 10:45 am just as staff began their day. Speaking in multiple languages, they locked employees in the vault room and carefully cleared the gold counters—leaving behind silver. Though they smashed four CCTV cameras, their faces were partially recorded.
Initial investigations by city police, including Commissioner Neelam Achutha Rao and Joint Commissioner Gopal B Hosur, yielded few results. The footage offered limited help due to technological constraints.
However, a breakthrough came from an unexpected angle. On July 30, 2007, Mangaluru builder Subba Rao was gunned down. Anti-Rowdy Squad officer Jayanth Vasudev Shetty traced suspect Umesh Shetty’s phone location—linking him to both the murder and the Bengaluru robbery.
Using a female constable in a sting operation, police lured Umesh’s aide Prakash, leading to Umesh’s arrest at a cricket match. He confessed, leading officers to recover gold hidden in a fridge. Several accomplices, including Gopala and Balakrishna Shetty, were caught in Karnataka districts.
The plot’s mastermind, Manish Shetty, had formulated the plan while jailed in Nashik. He was arrested in Tamil Nadu in September 2007. A total of 17 suspects were booked; most secured bail. In 2020, Manish was shot dead in a gang feud.
Jayanth Shetty, decorated with national and international medals, retired in 2015.
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