Mobile Phone Clue Cracks Hill Ridge Villa Theft
A source said the breakthrough came after accused Kalpana switched on a mobile phone while in Uttar Pradesh and texted her husband regarding the group’s whereabouts while they were fleeing to Nepal.
Hyderabad:A brief mobile phone activation by one of the accused turned into a crucial breakthrough for Cyberabad police in cracking the sensational theft at Hill Ridge Villas in Gachibowli, where one kilo of gold and silver ornaments were stolen from a businessman’s residence by a domestic worker couple from Nepal.
A source said the breakthrough came after accused Kalpana switched on a mobile phone while in Uttar Pradesh and texted her husband regarding the group’s whereabouts while they were fleeing to Nepal. Though she removed the SIM card used during the offence and inserted a new SIM in an apparent bid to evade detection, investigators tracking technical clues were alerted when the handset connected to a telecom network.
The source explained that once the phone was switched on, it automatically latched onto the nearest mobile tower, generating location‑based technical data. Cyberabad police, who had already placed the suspects under technical surveillance, received tower location inputs that helped narrow down the movement of the accused towards Uttar Pradesh. Based on the real‑time inputs, police teams coordinated with local authorities and zeroed in on the suspects.
According to Serilingampally CI Ch. Srinivas, the theft occurred on June 6 when a couple from Nepal committed the offence at a villa in Hill Ridge Villas during the absence of the elderly homeowners. The couple returned on June 7 evening and noticed the theft of a gold chain from a small idol, following which they approached police and a case was registered.
However, the scale of the theft surfaced only on June 8 when the couple’s son opened a locker using a key kept at the house and discovered that nearly seven to eight kilos of gold ornaments and around 1.5 kilos of silver articles were missing. During investigation, police found that the accused accessed the locker using a key kept beside it, removed the valuables, locked it again and fled with the key.
Cyberabad commissioner of police directed multiple teams, including SOT, crime teams and local police, to track the accused. Six special teams were dispatched to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand, while photographs and details of the accused were circulated to local police units.
A source said state DGP C.V. Anand personally spoke to Uttar Pradesh police officials seeking assistance, following which Gachibowli detective inspector Naresh and his team, with support from Rampur police and Uttarakhand SPF, apprehended the accused Kamal Shahi, his wife Vimal Shahi and Kalpana at Udampur in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh in the early hours of Tuesday. The stolen property was recovered intact. The trio will be brought to Hyderabad on transit warrant after being produced before a local court.
