BENGALURU: Sleeping in a bus could cost you dearly. Especially if you are carrying gold and if your wife has an agenda. Muniyappan (42), who works for Chemmanur Jewellers, found this the hard way while travelling from Bengaluru to Coimbatore on official work in February.
After almost five months, the long arm of the law has caught up with his wife Nagalakshmi (36) who allegedly stole the gold ingots weighing 1.2kg to clear her debts. She was arrested on Tuesday.On February 20, Chemmanur Jewellers in SJ Park asked their trustworthy employee Muniyappan to take the gold ingots to their branch in Coimbatore. Muniyappan left the same night with his wife. They boarded a bus around 7.45 pm. After having dinner inside the bus, Muniyappan went to sleep. By the time they reached Salem, Nagalakshmi allegedly transferred the gold from her husband’s bag into her suitcase and then threw his bag out of the bus.
When Muniyappan woke up a little later and did not find his bag, he panicked and asked the driver to stop the bus. Soon the luggage of all the passengers was searched but the gold was not found. However, Nagalakshmi’s bag was not searched.
The story did not end there. When they got down at their destination, Nagalakshmi told Muniyappan that she would return to Bengaluru and asked him to approach Tamil Nadu police. But Muniyappan was told by the police there to file a complaint in Bengaluru.When Muniyappan returned to Bengaluru and informed his employers about the theft, they filed a complaint with the SJ Park police. When the police questioned Muniyappan, they did not get any leads. And when they summoned Nagalakshmi for questioning, she refused to go. She also created a scene when they went to her house.
Police said, “We kept an eye on her movements for several months. However, in the first three months though Nagalakshmi tried to pledge/sell gold she was not able to do so as pawn brokers suspected her. Later, she somehow managed to sell it in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.” Police have now recovered all the gold she had pledged.