A realtor, who had sustained huge losses, allegedly took inspiration from the film Drishyam on how to evade the police, and burgled his friend’s house with the help of an associate, who is also a businessman. “The accused planned the burglary for two months and used a duplicate key to gain entry into the house. But they damaged the door on purpose to make it look like they had forced their way in,” said a police officer.
The accused, Nazeem Sharieff, 41, from Lakkasandra, and his associate, Mohammed Shafiulla, 42, from Sudduguntepalya who runs a granite business, did not use cellphones. They sprinkled chilli powder in the house to confuse the police dog squad.
According to the police, Shafiulla changed autorickshaws six times to transport the stolen goods worth ₹70 lakh. “To cover a 6-km distance, they took multiple autorickshaws on an 18-km route in an attempt to hoodwink the police,” said S.D. Sharanappa, DCP (East).
The police teams examined footage from 270 CCTVs and used conventional police methods, such as local intelligence, as they were unable to identify all the autorickshaws from the footage.
“Nazeem, after much deliberation, decided to burgle his friend’s house to recoup his losses. He roped in Shafiullah by promising to share the loot,” said the police.
On January 13, he went to the house of his friend Jyoti Jwala in Pulakeshi Nagar and accompanied her to a hospital where her brother had been admitted. At the same time, Shafiulla broke into the house and ransacked it. “He broke into the locker, which had Indian and foreign currency, and gold jewellery. He got on a two-wheeler parked in the premises and rode till Halasuru where he dumped the vehicle before hailing an auto to M.G. Road,” said the police officer
From there, he hailed another auto to Hosur Road, and kept changing autorickshaws till he reached Nazeem’s house at Lakkasandra.
The duo have been booked for burglary and taken into custody.
