Madurai Tanishq heist: Influencer, suspect’s father arrested; hunt on for YouTuber

Police have arrested two people and recovered around 6 kg of gold in the burglary at a newly opened Tanishq showroom in Madurai, while searching for the prime suspect, a social media influencer who allegedly burnt the clothes used during the crime on his family’s farmland.

According to a senior officer attached to the Madurai city police commissionerate, those arrested are Suresh, the father of the suspect, Nishanth, and Meenakshi, an Instagram influencer described as Nishanth’s close friend.

Nishanth, 25, remained at large, and his mobile phone was switched off. Police had not immediately specified the alleged role of each arrested person or where the gold was recovered. Meenakshi is known for promoting products, including cosmetics, online.

Nishanth, who lives in Arutperum Jothi Nagar near the showroom, has also been described as a YouTuber and bike-taxi driver. The arrests mark a development in an investigation that has moved from the showroom’s unfinished lift shaft to a nearby home, scooter movements and a journey by autorickshaw to farmland.

Nine special teams are pursuing the suspect and tracing the missing jewellery. Police suspect Nishanth took clothes in two bags to land belonging to his family on Madurai’s outskirts and set them alight. Television footage showed an autorickshaw journey that the investigators examined, and a cattle herder told reporters he had witnessed clothes being burnt.

Police had also collected recordings along the vehicle’s route to reconstruct the journey. Searches also extended to open land around Madakulam, where officers examined whether jewellery had been concealed. The recovery remained provisional, with investigators working to establish how much of the stolen stock was still missing.

On Friday, police searched Nishanth’s house in Palanganatham for nearly three hours. He was absent, and no jewellery was found during that search, according to a police source. The commissioner had said at that stage that no arrests had been made.

Investigators were examining footage that allegedly showed a man visiting the showroom three times as a customer before the burglary. He wore different clothes but a cap of the same colour, and kept one hand bandaged. Police suspect the visits helped him study the premises and its displays.

Footage from the night of the burglary showed a man moving along a road beside the showroom around 3.34 am. Sources said the burglar escaped on a scooter after spending nearly an hour selecting ornaments and packing them into bags.

The break-in, discovered when employees arrived on November 12, has exposed security lapses at a showroom opened before construction was complete. Police said the operator wanted to begin sales before Diwali. The jewellery was ready, but the arrangements to secure it overnight were not.

The locker facility was still under construction, leaving ornaments in display cases after business hours. More critically, the anti-burglary alarm had not been switched back on. Commissioner S Rajendiran said the system’s log showed it had been turned off when employees arrived on Wednesday morning.

It should have been activated again before they locked up that night. Outside, iron scaffolding provided access to the terrace of the three-storey building. Police said the intruder removed screws from an opening near the terrace, entered the lift shaft and descended towards the showroom.

Two security personnel were on night duty, but the route remained unsecured. There had also been an earlier warning. CCTV recordings from November 5 allegedly showed a masked man climbing the scaffolding in what investigators suspect was an unsuccessful attempt to enter.

Showroom staff had not noticed the footage; police allegedly found it while reviewing recordings after the theft. Investigators were checking whether the masked figures in both recordings were the same person. Arun Janardhanan is an experienced and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Express...

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