KOCHI: A police officer was caught stealing gold ornaments from one of his childhood friends on Friday, which created more embarrassment to the Kerala police department, who have not yet recovered from the shame after one of its officers was found stealing 10 kg of mangoes in recent days.
Amal Dev, an officer attached to the AR camp of Kochi City police, was arrested for stealing 10 sovereigns of gold ornaments from the house of Natesan, a resident of Njarakkal in Kochi. The gold belonged to Natesan's wife and was stored inside the cupboard in their bedroom. The alleged robbery took place on October 13.
"Both are childhood friends. Because of that, the accused was a frequent visitor to Natesan's house. Ever since the family members came to know about the missing ornaments, they were suspicious of the officer. He had also visited the victim's bedroom just a few hours before the incident. This added more doubts and forced the family to register a case," said an officer with Njarakkal police station, where the case has been registered.
The officer also confirmed that the accused admitted the crime. "Based on the complaint, we questioned the people who visited the home. Though the family members named the officer, we were confident that he would never commit such a shameful act. They were also family friends. But when we started questioning the officer as part of the procedure, he started showing some unusual behaviour. This raised some doubts among us so we decided to question him in detail. This helped us catch him. He confessed to the crime, and we will recover the ornaments pledged in a private financial firm near Njarakkal," the officer said.
The sources from the police department also confirmed that the accused is also involved in online rummy games and is believed to have suffered a huge loss after playing the game. "We have got some information regarding it. We need to investigate whether he is involved in any other crimes, " the officer added.
Meanwhile, the officer's act tarnished the image of the Kochi City police, who recently cracked the human sacrifice case.
"Really, it's a bad time for the police. On the other hand, some officers are trying to get all the praise for the department while others are making all efforts to tarnish the image. The Kochi City police, who were proud of cracking the human sacrifice case, are now ashamed of such officers," said a top police officer.
The police registered a case under section 179 of IPC. "We will produce him before the court today," the Njarakkal police said.
Earlier this month, a police officer was caught on CCTV camera stealing 10 kg of mangoes from a pushcart at midnight at Kanjirappally in Kottayam.