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Bengaluru Police crack house theft case after year-long probe

Last Updated 15 September 2020, 02:33 IST
Accused Manjunatha
Accused Manjunatha
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The Bengaluru Rural police have cracked a house theft case at the Godrej Gold County, an elite gated community of luxury villas at Chikkabidarakallu, off Tumakuru Road.

Working the case relentlessly for close to a year, the police nabbed the perpetrator Manjunatha, a driver in a neighbouring villa. They recovered 1.12 kg of gold and 400 grams of silver worth Rs 54 lakh from the culprit.

Police said a young businessman Chethan, a resident of the County, had registered a case of house theft on October 5, 2019 at the Madanayakanahalli police station.

“Returning from Singapore, the family found jewellery worth several lakhs stolen from the house and filed a complaint. We formed a special team to nab the culprit,” said Bengaluru Rural police superintendent Ravi D Channannavvar.

The special team interrogated 150 people, Channannavvar said, including security guards, gardeners, housekeeping staff, electricians, drivers, milk boys, and paper boys working in the County.

A senior police official said the gated community has long compound walls with security throughout the day. “The layout has access only to workers of the villas and neighbours of the villa community. After months of initial investigation that went nowhere, we had a small clue and began investigations in that direction,” the official said.

Bengaluru Rural’s additional SP Lakshmi Ganesh said the accused Manjunatha was working as a driver at the residence of Ravi Linganuri, a neighbour of the complainant. Manjunatha visited the complainant’s house with his employer.

Manjunath waited for the family to leave for Singapore. Once the house was empty, he sneaked into the house through the sliding window and made away with the jewellery. He pawned and sold the jewellery at famous gold trading companies and was building a house at his native in Arsikere taluk of Hassan district.

The investigating team comprising inspector K P Sathyanarayana, SI MN Murali and Devika Devi, ASI Ningarajegowda, and constables interrogated Manjunatha.

“There was a water leakage in the bathroom attached to the room where the jewellery was kept. Several north Indian plumbers roamed around in the area to fix the problem.

“Assuming that the police will suspect the plumbers, Manjunatha sneaked into the house when there was a power failure to avoid being captured by the CCTV cameras.

“He wiped the fingerprints and other evidence. Yet, we put enormous effort to crack the case,” the inspector explained.

IGP, Central Range Seemant Kumar Singh lauded the efforts of the police and announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh. He also issued them commendation certificates.

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(Published 14 September 2020, 20:24 IST)

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