Man loses gold necklace on Ernakulam-Bengaluru bus after video call with mother

A routine video call meant to ensure the safety of jewellery ironically led to the theft of a 55-gram gold necklace on a KSRTC Airavat bus from Ernakulam to Bengaluru, according to a police complaint.

Jayakumar R travelled to Ernakulam on March 6 to attend his son’s naming ceremony. His parents gifted his wife the necklace worth Rs 1.56 lakh.

On March 11, he boarded a KSRTC Airavat bus to return to Bengaluru. On the way, he video-called his mother. She advised him to keep the necklace safely in his bag. He placed the jewellery inside his luggage, which was kept in the overhead compartment behind his seat.

However, upon reaching the Shanthinagar Bus Station in Bengaluru the next morning, Jayakumar found the zip of his bag jammed and the necklace missing. He subsequently filed a complaint at the Ashok Nagar police station.

Jayakumar, a former IT professional, said there were 21 passengers on the bus and suspected that some of them overheard his conversation with his mother during the journey and stole the necklace.

"I checked with the bus staff about the CCTV camera but they told me that since it was a semi-sleeper bus, no CCTV cameras were installed," he told DH.