CHENNAI: Within 12 hours after the incident was reported, city police have nabbed a 54-year-old realtor for allegedly stealing gold and diamond jewellery. According to the police, the suspect lost business due to Covid and hence turned to burglaries.
Joseph Selvaraj (57) of MKB Nagar owned a steel business and the office was at Washermenpet. Recently, Joseph’s son got married and entire family had gone to Bengaluru, while Joseph stayed back. “On Thursday around 2 pm, Joseph was at his office, when his neighbour phoned and told him that some noises were heard from his house.
Joseph rushed to the house and found around 50 sovereigns and four diamond earrings missing from a cupboard,” police said. After a complaint was lodged, MKB Nagar police examined CCTV footage and identified a car with Andhra registration.
“We found out that the car belonged to one Johnson of Karanodai village in Tiruvallur district. We nabbed him soon and he claimed that he was a real estate tycoon in the district,” the officer added.
On further interrogation, Johnson confessed to the theft and returned valuables. Police said, that Johnson was involved in petty thefts some ten years ago but went into real estate business later. Due to the pandemic, his businesses suffered and so he turned to burglaries, they added.