The city police have arrested two burglars who were allegedly behind more than 20 burglaries in and around the city, including at 12 temples.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh identified the accused as Sunil Gupta, 34, of Vengannur, and his accomplice Ashokan alias Kovalam Ashokan, 53, also of Vengannur. They were nabbed by the City Shadow Police. He said the duo were behind various burglaries in the city, with the police obtaining ‘solid evidence’ that the two were behind last week’s theft at Malayalam-Tamil actor Iniya’s residence in Karamana. Gupta was an accused in over 100 theft cases. Ashokan, who has been jailed several times, helped him to sell the goods.
Gupta, whose crime record has been traced back to nearly 20 years, has reportedly confessed to having burgled the house of Selvaraj of Vilavurkal, Malayinkeezhu, from where he stole goods worth several lakhs; and other strikes at Pappanamcode, Murinjapalam, Nemom, Kumarapuram and Vizhinjam, to mention a few, while the temple thefts included strikes on temples at Killipalam, Kundamankadavu, Panavilakom, Peyad, Kavuvila, Malayam, Karamkode, Kariavattom, Balaramapuram, Medical College, Kumarapuram, Ulloor, Kochulloor and Mankulam.
Mr. Venkatesh, who said the recently launched anti-Narcotics drive had turned out to be quite successful, said discussions were on to detain a 42-year-old woman, Shanthi, under the provisions of the Kerala Antisocial Activities Prevention Act after she was arrested again on Thursday by the Narcotics Cell with about 1.25 kg of ganja.
