A special team comprising personnel from the Central Crime Station (CCS) and Three Town Police station arrested a property offender who has been evading arrest for quite some time, here on Monday.
Arrested offender was identified as Pokathota Gangadhar (25) alias Siddharth alias Siddu, an orphan and inmate of Amma Anadha Ashramam, Vijayawada.
The police also recovered about 1300 gm of stolen gold ornaments, including diamond sets, and other property worth ₹ 75 lakh.
According to the ACP (CCS) V. Govind Rao, the accused committed three offences between May 27 and June 23 this year, including the major offence at a flat in Varsha Apartment in Pandurangapuram, from where he stole 1300 gm of gold and about ₹ 3 lakh in cash. The accused was caught while he was allegedly trying to buy a new motorcycle with stolen cash on Monday.
Mr. Govind Rao told mediapersons that after committing the crime at Varsha Apartment, he took a house on rent at Ramabhadrapuram, bought a number of household items such as refrigerator, high-end mobile phones and home theatre and was leading a lavish life.
The accused was admitted to Amma Anadha Ashramam by an NGO when he was one-and-a-half years old.
In 2010, Siddharth escaped from the home along with 22 others and he landed in Rajahmundry, where he took up the job of a waiter in a hotel. In 2011 he committed his first theft in the hotel. Later, he moved to Visakhapatnam and worked in a number of hotels and committed a number of cell phone thefts. He was arrested and convicted in 2014 and was released in 2015. He was again convicted in 2016 for an offence and released in December 2016.
According to the police, Siddharth confessed that he escaped from the orphanage unable to bear the physical and mental torture and took to crime to lead a lavish life.
