Tinplate employee Raju George, who had led his guise gang to clean out booty worth Rs 18 lakh in two separate raids in Jamshedpur in February and March, had continued to work in the company until one of his five accomplices landed in police net last week.

DSP (HQ-I) K.N. Mishra, who is monitoring investigations into one of the robbery cases, said they would soon begin the process of attachment of property against the 35-year-old resident of Dhala Road, Golmuri, who has been absconding since April 9, when aide Suraj Kumar Das (25) was arrested from Bistupur.

"We have already petitioned the court for an arrest warrant against Raju and his four gang members. Once the warrant is obtained, we will apply for property attachment," DSP Mishra said.

Local residents of Golmuri said Raju was last seen outside his Dhala Road home, and the paan and tea stall at Tinplate Chowk till April 8 evening. He had attended duty as a crane operator at the company the same morning. However, after Suraj succumbed to police grilling and spilled the beans on how Raju masterminded the daring robberies, the Tinplate employee went missing from the neighbourhood.

The guise gang had posed as courier boys to rob gold ornaments worth over Rs 2.5 lakh from a flat in New Baradwari, Sitaramdera, on February 29 morning. They had held the flat owner's wife and daughter hostage during the swift operation.

On March 5 evening, the same gang decamped with gold and diamond jewellery worth over Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10,000 in cash at gunpoint from the residence of Tapan Chatterjee in Adarsh Nagar Phase VII, Sonari. This time, they masqueraded as policemen on a manhunt.

Interestingly, gang leader Raju's wife was a nurse at Tata Main Hospital until a year ago and knew Chatterjee's wife Sushama, who was also a nurse there until three years ago.

DSP Mishra said they were probing if Raju was known to the Chatterjees.