Beware of smart child guests at family functions

April 10, 2014 01:00 am | Updated May 21, 2016 10:01 am IST - VISAKHAPATNAM:

Some of the stolen gold ornaments recovered by the police put on display at a media conference by Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. Photo: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Some of the stolen gold ornaments recovered by the police put on display at a media conference by Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. Photo: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

A couple of smartly turned out boys from North India, by their looks and language, easily mingled with other children in a couple of marriage functions in the city without raising any eyebrows. After some time the hosts found some jewellery missing from the bride’s room, and no one took any note of the fact that the kids too were missing.

It took some time for the police too to piece together evidence and find that these two boys were also seen at two other marriages where jewellery was stolen from the bride’s room. It then struck the police that the presence of the children at these functions was no accident and that they were the actual perpetrators of the crime.

These kids were trained by their handlers to mingle with the children in the marriage functions and then look for an opportunity to make away with valuables left unguarded in the bride or bridegroom’s chambers, City Police Commissioner B Shivadhar Reddy told media persons here on Wednesday.

Worse this is the common modus operandi of members of Chasi tribe of Kadia village in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. The male or female seniors use children for committing thefts. Sometimes they bring the children from their poor neighbour on hire basis for a complete year. These people live in tents near bus stations, railway stations or in lodges and can be found loitering around the function halls under the guise of selling old clothes.

In a case that was busted by the City police the perpetrators – Shekhar Yadav of Jharkhand – and Rajendra Kumar Sisodia of Khadiya village in Madhya Pradesh – along with their two juvenile accomplices committed theft of jewellery in bride’s room in a hotel in December last, in a function hall in February and another theft at a function hall at NAD Kotha Road.

Inspector of Police Crimes B Mohan Rao, Kancharpalem SI A Santosh Kumar, III Town CI L Mohana Rao, SI V.N. Murthy and their staff investigated the case and apprehended the criminals. The police recovered 506 grams out of 730 gm gold jewellery stolen in the three incidents.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.