The Paravada police have arrested four individuals in connection with the theft of Palladium valued at over one crore rupees. Anakapalli District SP M. Deepika revealed the details of the case and the arrests during a press conference on Wednesday.
The theft was reported on October 12 by S. Varadarajan, the director of technical support at a private company that manufactures metal-on-carbon catalysts, including Palladium. The incident occurred on September 9 when the Palladium was being dried in the production block. After the facility was locked for the night, staff members found the following day that the lock had been tampered with, and the Palladium was missing.
The investigation led to the recovery of the stolen metal by police at a cremation ground, where it had been hidden. The suspects were identified as A1 Chintakayala Raju (26), a painter; A2 Muddanur Vineeth Verma (27), an electrician; A3 Chintakayala Murali (23), a helper; and A4 Kanumuri Ramachandra Raju (23), an assistant production manager at the company.
On the day of the theft, A2 and A4 disabled the CCTV cameras and created a duplicate key for the dryer lock. Later, on the night of October 9, A1 and A3 scaled the plant’s wall, unlocked the dryer, and stole the Palladium. A1 then hid the stolen metal at his home while attempting to find buyers.
Following an investigation, the police apprehended the suspects and recovered the stolen Palladium.
