Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (UM)
Udupi, Feb 18: Thieves broke into a house near Vidadaya college and decamped with gold and silver ornaments and coins worth several lacs. The incident came to light on Sunday February 18.
The theft was committed at the house owned by Suryakumar Shet, who is currently in hospital.
It is learnt that Suryakumar Shet fell sick about 15 days ago and has been in hospital since then. His only son was staying in the hospital to look after him, coming home only once in a few days. With Suryakumar's three daughters married, the house was empty and locked in father and son's absence.
Shet is a collector of antique gold and silver coins, and also has business dealing in gold ornaments.
The theft came to light on Sunday when Shet's son returned home and found the main door's lock broken.
The thieves ransacked three rooms in the house and decamed with gold ornaments and coins. The coins were arranged in an album, from which the thieves took away gold coins, but left behind the silver. Though the police are still evaluating the total value of the items stolen, it is suspected that it may well run into several lacs.
It is said that in Shet's son's room, the valuables were kept in four cupboards. Each cupboard was locked and its key hidden in the other cupboard, and the key of main cupboard was kept in a desk in the room. The thieves found the key in the desk and then the keys to other cupboards in each of them, and stole the valuables.
As the thieves seemed to have known the way the cupboard keys were hidden, and also that both son and father were away in the hospital, the police suspect the crime to be an insider's job.
Police sources said that though there was CCTV installed in the premises, it was not switched on.
DySP Kumaraswamy, circle inspector Naveenchandra Jogi and other police personnel arrived at the spot and investigated. They upbraided Shet for not informing the police to keep a watch on the empty house while he was in hospital.
It may be recalled here that in the year 2012, robbers had barged into Suryakumar's house and looted valuables and cash running into lacs of rupees after gagging and tying him up. The police had arrested eight persons in the robbery and recovered the stolen gold.