The Electronics City police, on Thursday, arrested the 32-year-old owner of a computer servicing centre for allegedly stealing gold and electronic gadgets from paying guest accommodations and houses in and around the South East division police limits. Stolen property worth ₹42 lakh, including 17 laptops, 5 cameras, 1.8 kilogram of gold valuables, 1 kg of silver articles and cash, were recovered from him.
The accused, Sumeer Sharma, is a native of Jalandhar in Punjab. He is a hotel management graduate. He had been arrested in 2017 for a similar offence, but was out on bail.
According to the police, he would scout neighbourhoods to identify locked houses and paying guest accommodations that had minimal security. However, one of the PGs he burgled had CCTV cameras, which recorded his movements. It was based on the footage that the police arrested Sharma.
The police have also arrested Ram Babu, who would purchase stolen goods from him.
M.B. Boralingaiah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East division), said that Sharma, after graduating in hotel management, married his classmate. The couple set up a computer servicing centre in Hosakerehalli in Giri Nagar. The business, however, did not pick up, and the couple started incurring huge losses. That was when Sharma decided to steal laptops and electronic gadgets from the houses of IT employees, said the police.
According to the police, Sharma had stolen ₹2 lakh from a family of construction labourers who had received the money after their two sons drowned in a pond at Kodichikkanahalli in March 2017. When they received the compensation in February this year, Sharma broke into their house and stole the money as well as 11 grams of gold, said the police, who retrieved the stolen gold and the cash from Sharma and returned it to the family.
