Bengaluru: Robber-brothers squandered fortune on lavish lifestyle

BENGALURU: The two brothers arrested for jewellery shop robberies had looted three stores of 8kg gold during 2011-12. However, they blew up their fortune by splurging on expensive items and incurring huge losses on an investment.
Shivu alias Shivamurthy, the mastermind, purchased a Toyota Fortuner and Hyundai i20 with the money he got from selling the stolen gold.He gave a debit card to his brother, A Shankar, and financed all his lavish expenditure. Police said the brothers spent extravagantly on expensive clothes, goggles and shoes.
Shivu set up a real estate firm, RS Business Solutions, in Yelahanka. He planned to purchase some land in Tumakuru district and even paid advance for the same. But he failed get it registered or get back his investment, incurring major losses. Shankar, meanwhile, attended coaching classes to take the civil services examination. He, however, failed to clear the preliminary exam.
By 2016, Shivu was penniless. He rented a house in Devanahalli to plan robberies along with Nivesh, an old friend and Jagadish, who he had met in Sri Lanka.
Box: Peek in the past
Shivu and Shankar are sons of astrologer Ashok Kumar aka KR Krishnappa and lived in Kothanur. Caught cheating in his Class 8 examination, Shivu escaped from his house fearing his parents’ wrath. He returned home after two years.
He was alone when he first targeted Santosh Jewellers in Ramamurthy Nagar in 2011 and walked away with 600 grams of gold. His brother Shankar, then a commerce undergraduate student, joined him in the second offence. The duo struck at a Chemmanur Jewellers outlet in Peenya and managed to loot 1.4kg of gold. A few months later, they looted another store in Rajajinagar and decamped with 6kg of gold.
Later, Shivu went to Sri Lanka and disposed of some of the jewellery he had stolen. He met Jagadish in Sri Lanka and took his help to dispose of the remaining gold in Chennai. He earned a total of Rs 1.4 crore.
Bought bullet-proof jackets from Maha, China
Investigation revealed that Shivu tried in vain to procure illegal firearms from Uttar Pradesh in April 2017. He, however, knew how to make petrol bombs. He also managed to purchase a locally-made bullet-proof jacket from Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
After the Chikkaballapur heist, Shivu sent Shankar to China in January 2018. Shankar couriered three bullet-proof jackets to his brother. The four accused wore the Chinese bulletproof jackets while attempting to loot Chemmanur Jewellers in Rajajinagar in February.