Karnataka Police have pulled off a stunning coup, dismantling a six-member gang behind a daring gold heist and recovering 17.7 kg of stolen treasure, officials announced Monday, March 31, 2025.

The loot, swiped from the Nyamati branch of the State Bank of India in Davangere on October 28, 2024, was traced to a well in Usalampatti, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, after a relentless five-month chase.

The culprits—Vijaykumar, 30, his brother Ajaykumar, 28, Abhisheka, 23, Chandru, 23, Manjunath, 32, and Paramananda, 30—blended into Nyamati’s daily life. Vijaykumar, Ajaykumar, and Paramananda, originally from Tamil Nadu, ran a sweets business there for years, while the others were locals.

Their meticulous plot unraveled when police, initially suspecting the notorious Kakrala gang from Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district, shifted focus to this homegrown crew.

The investigation took a twist, exposing the Kakrala gang’s decade-long spree across south India, including a November 2024 SBI heist in Warangal. Known for targeting rural banks ringed by fields, their hallmarks—window entries, gas cutters, stolen DVRs, and no phone use—mirrored Nyamati’s theft.

From November 2024 to February 2025, police scoured Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, nabbing five Kakrala members: Guddu Kalia, Aslam, Hazarath Ali, Kamruddin, and Babu Sahan. These arrests cracked open cases like the 15 kg gold theft from Karnataka Grameen Bank’s Hosahalli branch in 2022.

But Nyamati’s masterminds were closer to home. Vijaykumar’s gang, inspired by loan rejections and crime shows, stashed their haul in a Tamil Nadu well, planning to retrieve it years later.

Karnataka Police’s first-ever bust of the Kakrala crew, combined with this local takedown, has now exposed a web of property crimes across the region, marking a double triumph in a saga of grit and gold.