Chennai: Police solved the big housebreak case in 12 hours when they arrested a college going teenaged son of the house owner for conspiring with his college mates and stealing Rs 7.5 lakh cash and 34 sovereigns of gold from his own house on Sunday night in Ramavaram in order to purchase a car.
Police identified the arrested BCA second year student as Mahendran, son of Narayananlal, of Kamarajar Salai in Ramavarm. Narayananlal ran an electrical hardware store in the same neighbourhood. Mahendran’s college mates and friends A. Jeeva, 20, of Nethaji Nagar and K. Rajesh Kumar of Alwarthirunagar were also arrested by the police.
Police said Mahendran planned and executed the burglary because his demand for a car was not fulfilled by his father. He also wanted to entertain his girlfriend from Sowcarpet by gifting her one high- end mobile phone, police sources said.
Narayananlal, his wife and daughter had gone to his native place in Rajasthan on April 12 leaving the business and house with Mahendran and school going younger son Utham Chand (15). Mahendran took his employees and brother to dinner at his paternal uncle’s house on Sunday night. “That is when the house was burgled and next day his uncle, Mohanlal, had lodged a complaint with the police,” the police said.
A police team comprising senior officials visited the house and found some interesting leads. “There was no break-in. The intruders had used a key to get inside the house. The intruders were also aware of all the points where the cash bundles and jewellery were kept. And they had taken it all in just one hour between 9.40 pm and 10.40 pm on Sunday.
The inmates, who had gone out for dinner, returned by 11 pm. When we inspected the scene of crime it was evident that it was an insider job,” the police said.
Once police put their leads together, they started checking the call list of mobile numbers and zeroed in on two friends of Mahendran. As soon as Mahendran took others to dinner, his friends reached the house and entered using duplicate key given to them by him and emptied the valuables.
After extracting a confession from them, the police team confronted Mahendran who too confessed of planning and executing the crime. All the three were arrested and the entire loot was recovered.
