PANAJI
The Panaji police achieved a major breakthrough in a theft case with the arrest of an Odisha native, who has at least 48 burglaries booked against him in his home State, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The police-community relationship helped the local police to zero in on the accused identified as Santosh Kumar. The 42-year-old was wanted in a recent theft case at Miramar wherein he decamped with Rs 1,57,416 cash and belongings from a clinic on September 9-10. The CCTV cameras installed at the clinic captured his crime.
Panaji police informed that the thief took away the DVR but it was later found dumped near the Caculo colony by its team. Fortunately, the data was not deleted which helped the police crack the case.
“The DVR was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Verna to retrieve the data. We found that a well-built man with a moustache and carrying a torch broke the drawers at the counter and stole away the cash. While we were investigating the matter, some residents of the Cota Ghar, Sagar Villa informed us that past midnight on September 15 a suspicious-looking man on a rent-a-bike was spotted in their colony. We examined the CCTV footage and found he was the same thief,” an officer said.
PI Nikhil Palekar soon summoned a meeting of rental bike operators at the police station and was shown his photograph. One of them confirmed the suspected thief was his client and provided his records to the police.
“With the help of a call monitoring centre in Porvorim, the accused’s mobile location was traced and we found him hiding in a hotel in Panaji. He was arrested and part of the stolen property was seized. The house breaking tools have also been recovered,” an officer said.
The police have hailed the Miramar residents and rental bike owners’ alertness that helped the police detect this theft case.
The accused has 48 cases of thefts and robberies registered against him with the highest 29 in Andhra Pradesh, 15 in Odisha and four in Karnataka.
