Coimbatore : Sixteen persons, including the mastermind, involved in the highway robbery of jewellery worth Rs.98 lakh, were arrested over a period of time and remanded to judicial custody.

During the course, 2,488 grams of gold and diamond jewellery and 243 grams of silver ornaments were recovered, out of 3,107 grams of gold and 251 grams diamond jewellery and 243 grams of silver ornaments, looted after attacking the driver at K G Chavani on the outskirts on January seven, police said.

Immediately after the incident, police had formed four special teams to nab the culprits and managed to arrest 16 persons, after Rs.60 lakh worth jewellery were recovered from a mother-son duo from Tirupati, which led to the information about the mastermind, they said.

Those arrested were Firoz, the kingpin, Kannan, R Siddiq, Vipin Sangeth, Rynoob, all haling from Kerala, Jaiprakash, Tamilselvan, Fairose, Athik Pasha, Rajasekharan, Rizwan Sharif (all from Vellore),Mahaboobpasha, SadiqHussain, Syed Naee and Abdul  Raheem–all from Bengaluru, they said.

All the accused were produced before 7th Judicial Magistrate Court and remanded to custody and lodged in the Central jail here.