Ramanathapuram

Adopting a new modus operandi to ‘survey’ locked houses on the pretext of seeking help for hospitalisation, thieves broke open a locked house at Meenakshi Nagar here on Monday night and decamped with about 20 sovereigns of gold jewels and ₹1.5 lakh.

Police said the thieves, suspected to be more than two members, had broken open the house of G. Malathi, 52, a Postal Recurring Deposit agent, and looted the jewels and cash from the steel bureau, using the keys kept inside the house. They should have used gloves as finger print experts could not lift any finger print.

A sniffer dog was pressed into service and it stopped after running for some distance from the house. Enquiries with people in the area and CCTV footages from a nearby house revealed that two persons, apparently faking injuries, visited the houses, stating their father had met with an accident and they needed money to provide him medical care in a hospital in Madurai.

Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said this appeared to be a new modus operandi as they faked injuries to take note of locked houses. A special team has been formed to crack the case, he said. Ms Malathi had been living alone after separating from her husband for several years in the area. She had left for Tiruchi on October 19 to visit her sisters after asking her family friend Makruf, 35, to take care of the house.

He regularly visited the house and found the front door opened when he visited the house on Tuesday and informed the police. Malathi said she had kept the collection of recurring deposits in the house before depositing them in the post office.