CHENNAI: Bit by bit he managed to fleece, and in the end, the 21-year-old’s girlfriend ended up “stealing” gold jewellery worth Rs 1.3 crore from her house over a period of six months. The theft came to light when the 19-year-old girl’s uncle, Panneerselvam (51), noticed the jewellery kept in his sister-in-law’s house was missing.
Following a complaint lodged by Panneerselvam, a resident of Lakshmi Nagar in Maduravoyal, the police suspected an insider job, and zeroed in on the his niece as there was no sign of forced entry. The girl had been handing over the jewellery to her boyfriend,
H Karthik (21) of Shenoy Nagar, whom she had befriended while working at an establishment during her class 12 vacation. The youth allegedly extorted the jewellery from the teenager by claiming that his father was ill and he needed money for the treatment.
Karthik apart, the police also arrested his accomplices – Kumaragopal (20) and Prakash (22) of Avadi, Ramesh (47) of Nandanam, and Surya (28) of Mathur. The girl is being questioned, and the police said she is cooperating.
The suspects allegedly sold the jewellery and spent the money on luxury items, including a car, motorcycle and mobilephones. The police recovered about six sovereigns of gold jewellery, a mobile phone, Rs 50,000 in cash, a motorcycle and a car from them. Further probe is under way.