Hyderabad: A three-member gang that sedated residents of a house and stole 53.87 tolas gold ornaments was arrested by the Nallakunta police on Friday within three days of the theft being reported. The ornaments were recovered intact, police said. The gang had mortgaged the jewellery for Rs 5.25 lakh, and this money was also recovered.
The main accused was identified as Khushboo Naidu, a relative of the complainant P. Vinay Kumari. Along with Khushboo, the police also arrested her accomplices S. Vamshi Krishna and V. Surya Krishna. Ms Kumari, 54, is a telephone operator incharge at the Telangana State Police Academy.
Ms Kumari’s family had stored the jewellery for the oncoming wedding of their daughter, Ms P. Kirthi.
Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said, Khushboo as a relative of the victim used to visit her house. He said Khushboo got access to the door keys and made a duplicate set. She knew that Ms Kumari took sleeping pills. On July 19, she laced Ms Kumari’s lemon juice with a bigger dose of sleeping pills. When Ms Kumari fell unconscious, Khushboo accompanied Ms Kirthi in shifting her to a private hospital.
With the house empty, Khushboo and her aides tried to enter the house but the duplicate keys did not work. She returned to the hospital and came back with the original keys. The trio entered the house and stole the ornaments and the cash and returned the keys to Ms Kirthi.
Four days later, when the victim daughter’s came home, she noticed the valuables missing and lodged a complaint.
Nallakunta detective inspector K. Saidulu said the police analysed the call data records of 10 people who had visited Ms Kumari’s house in recent times. “We noticed that Khushboo had 90 calls on the date of the offence. When we questioned her associate, he confessed to the crime,” Mr Saidulu said.
Mr Kumar appreciated the Nallakunta police for cracking the case though there was a four-day delay in reporting it, and the accused did not leave behind any fingerprints.
