The joy over recovery of 350 sovereigns of jewellery and Rs.25 lakh cash that were stolen from his house was short-lived for Suriyanarayanan, a bullion merchant. He had waited for 20 days to receive information from police about the recovery of the valuables worth Rs.95 lakh on Thursday.
But, hardly 24 hours had passed when the city police decided to book him for giving false information regarding the theft reported on June 14. In his complaint, Suriyanarayanan had said only two and a half sovereigns of gold and Rs.10,000 were stolen from his house.
The Anna Nagar Crime police registered a non-professional theft case.
However, the police were shocked when they nabbed Selvaraj, the car driver of Suriyanarayanan. Selvaraj revealed to the police that he had stolen a whopping 2.750 kg of gold and Rs.25 lakh cash along with two of his friends.
Commissioner of Police Sanjay Mathur instructed the officials to book Suriyanarayanan under Section 203 of the Indian Penal Code for providing false information. Besides, the city police have sent a report to the Income Tax Department as he had no records on the gold and cash.
The police found that Suriyanaryanan, who was running the gold business, along with five partners, from his residence, could not give any proper information about the valuables and money. “He could not account for them. Besides, he had given false information about the property lost in his complaint,” Mr.Mathur said.
A case for non-cognisable offence could be registered only after getting court’s permission, he added.
