Guards steal cash chest from school, caught trying to open it

 The long weekend and Id holiday came in handy for a gang of four thieves, who broke into a school, stole the iron cash safe and tried to break it open in the eerie environs of a graveyard but were caught in the act by night patrol police on Tuesday.

Sameer Ali (24), Prafulla Gogoi (24), Raju Pradhan (37) and Lima Singit (22) are the four arrested.

Taking advantage of the weekend and Id celebrations, Ali and Gogoi, who worked as security guards at Delhi Public School in Varthur Hobli, broke into the school.

With the aid of Pradhan and Singit, they tried to steal the cash stashed in the safe. Being amateurs, the four failed to break open the chest and stole the iron safe, the police said.
Unable to find a place to break the safe, the gang finally decided to go to the burial ground at Jakkasandra Extension, Koramangala I Phase, in the dead of the night on Tuesday.

On a tip-off, a team of nine police personnel, comprising four head constables, four constables and an ASI, attached to the Koramangala police station, rushed to the spot. The police arrested the four, even as they took to their heels, and seized the iron safe.

Complaint registered

The Koramangala police later learnt that the school authorities who arrived for work on Tuesday registered a complaint at the Varthur police station, on finding the safe missing.
Dr P S Harsha, DCP (South-East) told Deccan Herald: “We summoned the school authorities on Wednesday and opened the chest in front of them to find Rs 22,37,195 in cash safe.”

Four arrested for murder

The JP Nagar Police have arrested a gang of four in connection with the murder of a 23-year-old man.Their interrogation has helped the police crack 27 cases of car theft and robbery too. The four arrested are Sateesh alias Kadu Papa, (28), and Pramod (24), both drivers, Manjunath alias Manja, (21), a technician, and Nagendra alias Devu, (23), a coolie from Mandya.

The gang had hacked to death Manjunath at Jaraganahalli in JP Nagar on the midnight of July 20 due to an old rivalry, police said.

During the interrogation, they admitted to being involved in as many as 27 cases of theft and robbery. The police recovered valuables worth Rs 37 lakh including four cars and 500 gram of gold jewellery from them.

Woman ends life

Unable to bear the pain of her son’s death in an accident recently, Mangala (40), committed suicide on Wednesday morning. She was found hanging from a tree opposite her house. Her son Shashidhar, a teenager, had died in a road accident 20 days ago. Mangala had gone into depression since then.