Woman held for stealing Rs 20L valuables from dad

MUMBAI: Denied a share in immovable property, a woman decided to make her father miserable by taking away his movable property when no one was looking, found the police in a recent case. The Nalasopara woman and her husband were arrested after valuables worth Rs 20 lakh went missing from her father's flat in Bhayander on Friday last week.
Suman Gupta (28) and her husband, Umakant (32), only wanted revenge and did not wish to sell or use the jewellery, even dumping some of the ornaments in the mangroves nearby, said the police. The police recovered a few of the ornaments from the mangroves.

The woman planned to throw away the remaining gold and silver jewellery too, said the police.

The couple were arrested for house trespass and remanded in police custody.

Suman and Umakant broke into the flat of her father in Bhayander (east) when the family was out for a wedding, said the police.

The main lock of the door was broken, the cupboard ransacked, and gold and silver missing. Suman's elder sister, Menaka Gupta, registered a police complaint against unknown persons.

She did not name Suman, the youngest of three siblings, as the family at that juncture did not suspect her.

It was only after the police began investigating and saw CCTV footage from the locality showing the couple walking away that the two were made suspects.

The CCTV images did not show faces for long as Suman was holding an umbrella, but she slipped up once. "In one image she turned her head to look behind and her face was captured and that is how the case was cracked," assistant superintendent of police, Bhayander, Atul Kulkarni said.

Suman's father owns over a dozen shops and other properties in Bhayander. He gave no share of these to any of his daughters.

The older sisters did not make an issue of it, but Suman would have fights with her father for a share in his properties.

Suman said to the police that she did not want to keep the valuables and arouse suspicion. She said she stole the valuables only so that she could see her father suffer after losing his valuables.

The police said that Suman knew exactly where the valuables were kept. She did not touch the gold ornaments of her mother and sister in the same cupboard.

Suman said to the police that she picked up only the gold and silver ornaments purchased by her father over the years.