Three balloon sellers from Rajasthan held for house theft in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru police on Tuesday announced the arrest of three balloon sellers who allegedly broke into locked houses and stole valuables.

The Subramanyanagar police arrested Rajesh, 46, Karamveer, 22, and Karan alias Suresh, 27 — all from Rajasthan. The police have seized gold and other valuables worth Rs 5 lakh.

The police said that the trio sold balloons at traffic signals while also scouting neighbourhoods. They specifically targeted houses locked with padlocks.

The gang was discovered after a Rajajinagar resident filed a complaint, stating that miscreants had ransacked his house and stolen gold and silver.

Investigators initially struggled to identify the suspects using CCTV footage from the vicinity. However, a breakthrough came when they spotted the trio carrying a suspicious-looking side bag in footage from a different street.

"The structure of the bag appeared unusual, so we tracked them through other CCTV cameras in the area. We caught them near the Sriramapura metro station on February 23 and found the stolen valuables in their bag,” an investigator told DH.

The police stated that the suspects had committed similar house break-ins in the past, stealing gold jewellery. The stolen valuables were sold to a jeweller in Maharashtra, but the police have yet to locate the buyer.

Investigators also revealed that the suspects frequently changed locations, sleeping on roads and railway platforms to evade arrest.

Following a police request, a Bengaluru court has remanded all three suspects to judicial custody.