The police on Wednesday recovered most of the “jewels” stolen from Harihara Varma, a self-styled “royal” and gemstone dealer who was found murdered in a house here on December 24.
Assistant Commissioner K.E. Baiju who investigated the case said that the most of the “gems” were recovered from the friends of the main suspects in the murder-for-profit case.
Five accused
The police had earlier arrested five accused, all members of a fraternity of Malayali students in Bangalore. The loot was recovered from the custody of their friends in Karnataka and Kerala.
An investigator, quoting a gemstone analyst working for the State Mining and Geology Department, said the stones examined so far were not of remarkable colour, clarity, cut (the skill of fashioning stones to desired pattern) or carat (size).
The preliminary inference was that they were of a low quality and would only fetch a poor price in the market.
The police case was that the accused, one of whom was an employee of Varma earlier, had grown sceptical of the dealer’s claim that the gems were family heirlooms, believed the stones were stolen ones and decided to steal them for themselves.
