Five more people involved in the sensational heist of Rs 5.78 crore in a moving train in 2016 were arrested Tuesday, taking the total number nabbed in the case to seven, police said.
According to Crime Branch-CID officials, those arrested hail from Madhya Pradesh and belong to Pardi group of criminals who were lodged in prisons in Madhya Pradesh.
H Mohar Singh, Rusi Pardi, Kaliya, Mahesh Pardi and Biltya were brought to Chennai and produced before a local court here, Tuesday.
The court granted 14-day police custody of the accused for further interrogation, they said.
Early this month, the CB-CID wing, which has been probing the case, had arrested Dinesh and Rohan Pardi hailing from Madhya Pradesh.
According to police, Rs 342 crore was transported from the Indian Overseas Bank, Salem to the Reserve Bank of India, Chennai by a railway parcel van in the Salem-Chennai Egmore express train on August 8, 2016.
When the parcel van was opened by RBI authorities on its arrival at Egmore here, they found Rs 5.78 crore was stolen by drilling a hole on the van's roof.
The heist made headlines following the modus operandi adopted by the accused which were similar to scenes portrayed in a Tamil movie.
CB-CID special teams travelled across the country and cracked the case early this month with the arrest of two persons.
According to informaton provided by one the accused, the gang members travelled atop the moving train and drilled a hole on the roof of the parcel van between Chinna Salem and Vriddhachalam railway stations on the night of August 8,2016.
Two of the gang members entered the van through the hole, broke open the wooden boxes, took cash bundles and wrapped them in coloured dhotis.
When the train was arriving at the Vriddhachalam station, the gang members, who were on top of the roof, gave the bundles to another gang on the ground and fled, officials said.
The Pardi group of criminals are also involved in many cases across Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, according to officials.
The gang members move in groups to various places. They stay on the roadside or near railway stations by putting up temporary shelters and work as a construction labourers, balloon and toy vendors to move around and identify targets to commit crime.
CB-CID police were also probing the gang's involvement in other offences committed in the state.
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