A tourist visiting Mysuru palace on Sunday lost Rs. 2 lakh kept in her vanity bag. The tourist identified as Mallika Mehta from Ahmedabad in Gujarat was in Mysuru on a sight-seeing trip along with her husband Prakash and three relatives. During their visit to the palace on Sunday afternoon, the group of tourists returned to the shoe counter after going around the palace. The cash was stolen from her vanity bag near the shoe counter, said city Police Commissioner B. Dayananda.
The tourist had apparently kept the vanity bag aside while wearing her footwear and the miscreants had made use of her momentary distraction to flick the cash from it and flee. The palace witnessed a huge rush on Sunday as it was a holiday.
The Mysuru palace security reported the matter to jurisdictional Devaraja police station from where officials rushed to the spot and conducted an investigation.
The police were going through the video footage obtained from the CCTV cameras installed on the palace premises to identify the suspects.
105 CCTV cameras
Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner of Police for Mysuru palace security, Channaiah, said a total of 105 CCTV cameras monitored the crowd on the palace premises.
Instances of theft, picking the pocket, attention diversion, chain-snatching and other crimes had witnessed a drastic decline since CCTV cameras were installed on the palace premises about two years ago.
The palace security, comprising 75 personnel, looks after various aspects of security at the palace.
Senior police officials, who visited the palace on Sunday after the theft, urged the officials to put up signboards in various languages cautioning visitors to be careful with their belongings.
