Daijiworld Media Network – Beltangady
Beltangady, Nov 13: A notorious inter-state thief, Itte Barpe Abubakkar (71), has been arrested by Venur police in connection with a gold ornament theft case that occurred in Kutloor village of Beltangady taluk. The theft took place at a house in Manjushree Nagar when no one was at home, during which gold ornaments worth about Rs 9.50 lac were stolen by breaking open the main door lock.
On the night of November 11, while PSI Oman and his staff were conducting vehicle checks, they stopped a man riding a scooter due to suspicion. Upon verifying his documents and questioning him, the police identified him as the notorious thief Itte Barpe Abubakkar. Preliminary investigation revealed that he was also suspected of being involved in a theft in Mangaluru, and it was later confirmed that he had carried out the theft at a house in Kutloor village.
The theft had occurred at the residence of Avinash, a resident of Manjushree Nagar. On October 2, he had locked his house and left, and by the time he returned on October 6 around 5 pm, the theft had taken place. The stolen items included a black-bead chain, a pearl chain, and gold chains weighing a total of 149 grams, valued at approximately Rs 9.50 lac. A case was registered at Venur Police Station in this regard.
The accused was produced before the Beltangady court, which remanded him to police custody till November 15 upon the police’s request. He reportedly admitted to selling the stolen gold ornaments. The operation was conducted under the leadership of Beltangady Inspector Subbapurmath and the Venur Police team.
Itte Barpe Abubakkar hails from Chikkamagaluru and currently resides near Kana, close to Suratkal. Over the past four decades, he has been repeatedly arrested and jailed for his involvement in more than 50 theft cases registered across various police stations in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Chikkamagaluru districts, as well as in Kerala.
For 71-year-old Abubakkar, theft has been a lifelong profession. On June 27 this year, he broke into a house near Mattaru Temple in Shirva police limits and stole 66.76 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs 7.50 lakh. He was arrested and had only recently been released from jail.
Abubakkar is widely known as ‘Itte Barpe Abubakkar’. In the 1980s, while working as an auto-rickshaw driver in Chikkamagaluru, he had written the name ‘Itte Barpe’, a popular Yakshagana play title, on the back of his auto-rickshaw. Since then, he became known by that name and was also recognized as a member of the notorious Ripper Chandran gang.