The Hindu : Caretakers or house breakers?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Caretakers or house breakers?

Crimes involving family members or known persons pose a bigger challenge for police, says S. SHIVAKUMAR

Leaving the house in the safe custody of friends and relatives does not guarantee that it is free from burglary. There is always a fear that these `caretakers' could themselves target the house or unwittingly tip off thieves. The fear of `insiders' being behind crimes has surfaced again in Chennai with the recent `600 sovereign burglary' complaint from a film producer's house at Kodambakkam.

Though there have been several instances when housemaids or car drivers have committed crimes directly or with the connivance of gangsters, crimes involving family members or known persons who made away with valuables, pose a bigger challenge for the police. For any interrogation by police on suspicion is bound to embarrass family members. "Unless we have concrete evidence, it is difficult to pinpoint the culprit. Moreover, husband or wives sometimes take valuables away without informing their spouses and it gets reported as a routine theft", a senior police officer said.

In the recent case, the film producer, Muthu, before leaving for Tirupati, left his house in the custody of his grand daughter and her husband. On his return, he found that the jewels and cash, worth about Rs. three lakhs were missing when he checked his office room. He lodged a complaint with the police, suspecting that some insiders were behind the crime as only persons who knew about the secret cabin could have opened it. Moreover, Mr. Muthu alleged that the couple were absconding, and urged the police to trace them and get back the valuables.

Investigation by police revealed that Mr. Muthu had willed a large portion of his property, including the house in which he was staying, for charity. This caused a lot of heartburn among his grandchildren. Police suspect that this could be one of the reasons for the burglary.

Invariably, after inspecting the scene of crime, police, based on their past experience, easily come to a conclusion that it could be an "insider job". "There is a lot of difference between crimes committed by a professional and an amateur. Invariably, amateurs making their first strike get exposed while trying to enact a scene to resemble a burglary or a crime. There have been cases when victims have also bound themselves with rope to give a proper finishing touch to the stage managed crime" the officer adds.

In this connection, the officer explains the unravelling of a major burglary in a South Africa-based businessman's house a few months ago, in Egmore. The house was reported burgled when the family had gone away for a vacation. The house was ransacked and the bureaus broken. However, there was a strong suspicion on some known person to have committed the crime, as the watchman had not seen any suspicious looking person except some relatives visiting the house.

Moreover the suspicion of the police was stronger when relatives gave conflicting replies when questioned. It later came to light that the businessman's wife herself had allegedly organised the `burglary' following a family problem.

However, a classic case of a burglary being stage-managed was in the house of a senior government official. About 80 sovereigns of gold jewellery were reported stolen from the official's house a couple of years ago. As the case was not detected even after some months the official brought pressure on the local police using his influence.

The local inspector, who took up the case as a challenge after sustained investigation, learnt that a goldsmith was regularly visiting the house. On suspicion the inspector picked up the goldsmith and interrogated him. The goldsmith confessed to getting the jewels from the official's wife and the entire jewellery was recovered. However, to the inspector's surprise there was no sense of guilt or fear when the official's wife came to identify the recovered jewellery. Only when the inspector explained to her about the goldsmith's confession did she realise her game was up. This was again stage-managed following a family feud.

There have also been cases of businessmen and financiers stage managing crimes to overcome financial crisis. For instance, a jeweller who lodged a complaint that eight kilos of gold jewellery were stolen from his shop later confessed to police that he made a false complaint following business loss.

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