Steno serves sedative-laced buttermilk, steals gold jewels

The Cubbon Park police arrested a stenographer with a private hospital in Central Bengaluru for stealing gold ornaments from her colleagues.

Bhavya (33), a resident of Sunkadakatte, stole gold from two of her co-workers by serving them buttermilk laced with sedatives. The police recovered 97 grams of gold ornaments from her. They arrested Bhavya and said they had solved both the cases of theft.

On January 20, Bhavya gave the sedative-laced buttermilk to her colleague Shivamma, who felt dizzy after drinking it. Bhavya took her to the washroom, where she removed Shivamma's gold ornaments and sent her home in an autorickshaw.

When Shivamma found her gold jewels gone, she asked Bhavya if she saw them. The stenographer denied having seen them and suggested Shivamma would have lost them on her way home. A suspicious Shivamma lodged a police complaint against Bhavya at the Cubbon Park police station.

During investigation, the police stumbled on a similar case filed on December 2, when Mangalamma from the same hospital had lost 25 grams of gold ornaments from her hospital locker.

Realising that the thief could be an insider, the police examined CCTV footage and found Bhavya's movements suspicious on the two occasions when the thefts occurred. The stenographer had served buttermilk to both women.

Bhavya confessed to stealing gold jewels from Shivamma and Mangalamma during interrogation. The police recovered one necklace, two bangles and a mangalsutra worth Rs 2.91 lakh from her.

Bhavya was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.