Vijayapura police arrest 12 more in Managuli Canara Bank theft case, recover 39 kg of gold

The Hindu

11-07-2025

Vijayapura police have arrested 12 more persons in the Canara Bank theft case at Managuli village in the district. This takes the total number of arrests to 15. Three key accused have already been arrested. A total of 39 kg gold and cash have been recovered from the gang so far.
Those apprehended on Friday (July 11, 2025), include three railway employees, a guest lecturer at a college who has a Ph.D. in Computer Science, a postgraduate in bio-technology, and an electronics gadget expert.
The accused are Balaraja Manickam Govindu Yerukula (40), a railway department employee; Gundu Joseph Shyamababu (28), employee of a private firm; Chandanraj Varadaraj Pillai (29), an employee of a private firm; Ejaz Maqbool Ahmed Dharwad (34), Peter alias Vinodchand Jayachandrapal (40), a guest lecturer in Government First Grade College, Dharwad; Susairaj Francis Daniel (44), a watchman; Baburao Dhanam Miriyala (40), a Railway Department employee; Muhammad Asif Kallur (31), a duplicate key maker; Anil Mohan Rao Miriyala (40), a driver; Abu alias Mohankumar Gundaya Yashmala (42), a private firm employee; Solomon Wesley Wilson Umapati Palukuri (40); and Mariadas Jobu alias Yobu Gona (40), an electrician. All the accused are from Hubballi.
Cash, gold seized
Police also seized five cars, including a railway truck, used for the offence, fake keys used to break into the bank and the locker, tools used to make fake keys, hexa blades, two gas cylinders used to melt gold, one oxygen cylinder, a burning gun, spanners, four walkie-talkie sets used for communication during the theft and a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter from the accused.
Investigators seized a total of 39 kg of gold bars and jewellery stolen from the bank. They also recovered ₹1.16 crore cash deposited in Majestic Pride Casino in Goa, that was obtained after melting gold and selling it.
Prime accused arrested
In an earlier operation, police had arrested three accused. Vijayakumar Mohanrao Miriyala (41), former manager of the Managuli Canara Bank branch, now posted in another branch; Chandrashekar Kotilingam Nerella (38), and Sunil Narasimhalu Moka (40). Police had seized 10.5 kg of gold ornaments and melted gold bars worth an estimated ₹10.75 crore from them.
Meticulous planning
SP Laxman Nimbargi said that the accused had planned the heist meticulously after watching films and web series. 'They had watched several hours of videos on Youtube about breaking locks, disabling CCTV cameras and melting gold. They were also influenced by depictions of how gangs escaped after committing theft in films and series. That is why they used a railway truck to lift two-wheelers so that their tracks were covered,' the SP said.
The prime accused had picked his team carefully, including those expert in CCTV maintenance, high-mast lamp repair, locksmiths, and electronics. They had also left ragdolls and vermilion to divert the attention of the police and make it look like a gang from Tamil Nadu or Mangaluru had committed the theft, Mr. Nimbargi said.
Round-the-clock effort by police
Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Chetan Singh Rathod, who addressed a press conference, said that eight teams of police officers had worked round-the-clock to crack the case. He congratulated them and announced awards and certificates of excellence.
Teams led by additional SPs Shankar Marihal and Ramanagouda Hatti, deputy SPs T.S. Sulpi, Sunil Kamble, Ballappa Nandgavi, police inspectors Ramesh Avaji, Gurushantha Dashyal, Ashok Chavan, sub-inspectors Srikanth Kamble, Ashok Nayak, Devaraj Ullagaddi, Basavaraj Tippareddy, Rakesh Bagali, Somesh Gejji, Vinod Dodamani, Vinod Poojary, Shivanand Patil, Yatheesh K., Nagaratna Uppaladinni and about 100 others, worked on the case.
Mr. Rathod said Mr. Marihal was retiring at the end of July and that the successful resolution of the investigation was Mr. Marihal's retirement gift to Vijayapura district.
Heist engineered by former manager
Canara Bank officials had complained that a gang of unidentified thieves had broken in to a branch at Managuli on the evening of May 23, 2025 by cutting the bars and bending the grills of the safe locker. They had stolen 58.9 kg of gold and ₹5.2 lakh in cash. They had also taken away Digital Video Recorder from the CCTVs, the complaint said.
The bank, however, changed their complaint later to say around 40 kg of gold was recovered. Investigation revealed that the bank manager had engineered the entire episode. The gang had used duplicate keys to enter the bank, but had cut the bars only to derail the investigation.
'They waited for the manager to get transferred, and changed the date of the offence after RCB lost an IPL match. They chose the next date, after relying on weather forecasts by a mobile app that said it would rain in Managuli that evening. But it did not rain,' a police officer said.