COIMBATORE: A spate of burglaries across the district in the past four days has left residents worried and kept police on their toes.
Of the nine cases, two were in the residential quarters of constables serving in the armed reserve wing of Coimbatore rural police at the Police Recruitment School (PRS) premises on Tuesday. In the first incident, Nahina, a constable, had gone to Krishnagiri on October 22 on personal work. When she returned around 4.45 am on Tuesday, she found the door broken open and laptop, a four-gram gold ring and four rings weighing one gram each, a silver tumbler and silver vessels missing.
In another incident, Manikandan, a constable deployed in Athikadavu left for duty on October 16. When he returned on Tuesday, he found the house broken into and 1.5-sovereign chain, a four-gram gold ring, silver articles and Rs 4,000 cash missing. Race Course police are formed two special teams to investigate the cases.
Among the major burglaries reported earlier, diamond and gold jewels worth Rs 1.3 crore were lifted from a house at GN Mills on Friday. Even as police started investigations, another burglary was reported on Monday in which around 50 sovereigns of gold and Rs 2 lakh cash were stolen. According to police, Karikalan (60), a retired PWD staff residing at Sri Kannan Nagar near Thudiyalur, and his family members had gone to Salem to attend a ceremony at a relative’s house. When they returned around 11 pm on Sunday, they found the house burgled. Miscreants had broken open the door and vanished with jewels and cash. Thudiyalur police lifted fingerprints and material evidence from the crime scene.
Prior to this incident, two houses had been found broken into on Sunday. One of the houses was located at Sowdambika Nagar near Vellakinar pirivu and it belonged to K Dineshkumar (42), a farmer. Five sovereigns of gold jewels, silver materials and wristwatches had gone missing from the house. Nothing was found missing from the other house.
The unidentified gang, which burgled Rs 1.3 crore worth valuables from a house at GN Mills, had attempted the same in several houses in a row. Police have formed 10 special teams to investigate the cases.
Rattled by the burglaries, senior police officers went into a huddle on Monday. “We are taking all possible efforts to trace the burglars. Special teams, headed by three DSPs, are investigating the cases. We have taken several preventive measures in recent days to monitor locked houses,” said MS Muthusamy, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Coimbatore range.
It may be recalled that police last week launched an app SaKo (Safe Kovai), a mobile application, to monitor locked houses. They also introduced a paid alarm service in partnership with private firms.