CHENNAI: Two days after a house in Ramapuram was cleaned up of valuables in two hours flat, it emerged that a grumpy son of the house owner plotted the break-in because of an unmet demand for a car.
Businessman Narayan Lal had his house well protected with CCTV cover but his eldest son Mahendran (19) thought he could fool the prying cameras by turning them to a different angle. He also broke a couple of cameras and disposed them of in the Porur lake. What he did not anticipate was another CCTV camera installed by a bank opposite their building. That cam captured the entry and exit of his friends. The game was up.
The Royala Nagar police started the investigations on Sunday night when relatives of Lal informed about the missing valuables and gold in the house.
The burglary happened when Mahendran took all the inmates of his house to visit a relative at Kolapallam. Lal, along with his wife and daughter, had gone on a visit to Rajasthan.
The first clue for the police was the door lock. It was found intact, so it was evident that a duplicate key was used for the break in.
And the CCTV camera installed on the ground floor of the building, which covers the stretch leading to the house, was found turned away.
But the CCTV camera installed by the bank captured two of his friends - A Jeeva (20) and K Rajesh Kumar (20) - entering the house and exiting within a short span.
During questioning, the collegemates revealed to the police that Mahendran was the mastermind. He waited for his parents to leave for Rajasthan and prepared a duplicate key. He also roped in his friends to execute the plan.
On Sunday at 9 pm, Mahendran took his 15-year-old younger brother and his other relatives to another relative’s place at Kolapakkam. Then, he texted Jeeva and Rajesh Kumar and asked them to execute the plan.
The younger brother noticed the missing valuables on return at 10.45 pm and informed his uncle, who in turn alerted the police.
The Rayala Nagar police have arrested the three college students.
While the initial complaint mentioned that nearly half a kilogram of jewellery, 2.5 kg of silver and `14 lakh in cash was stolen, the police, after making the arrests, said only 34 sovereigns of gold jewellery and `7.5 lakh cash was stolen.