Chennai: Police on Thursday arrested a serial offender, Dori Babu, in connection with a break-in at the house of a railway employee in Royapuram about six days ago. The stolen jewellery was recovered from a teddy bear the accused had kept attached to in his two-wheeler, police said.
About 90 sovereigns of gold jewellery were stolen from the house of a railway employee Munusamy (43). Last Friday (Aug. 20), his wife Kalavathi, a teacher was away at school while their daughter was in college when the accused broke into their house and decamped with the valuables.
Police zeroed in on the accused based on the fingerprints lifted from the burgled house and took him for investigations. According to a senior police officer, Babu claimed innocence of his indulgence in the burglary. “He gave in only after we indulged in the good cop-bad cop routine,” the official added.
When cops quizzed him about the place he hid the jewels, the accused directed them to his two-wheeler he had kept at his hideout in Royapuram. “He had kept the stolen jewels in a small teddy bear which he kept on his bike,” an investigating official said.
Investigations revealed that he used a crow bar to break into the house and made escape within half an hour of breaking in. He was involved in more than two dozen similar cases in various police station limits in the past and is a serial offender. Police said that he is also notorious for sending bomb hoaxes to government offices. “He buys ticking alarm clocks and places them at government offices. He once planted a clock on an MTC bus too,” said a police officer. Babu was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
