TN: 2.7kg gold jewellery worth 1.05 crore recovered from serial burglar

MADURAI: The Kanyakumari district police have arrested a 30-year-old burglar and recovered 337 sovereigns of gold jewellery worth more than 1.05 crore and two stolen bikes from him. A search is on for an AIADMK functionary running a jewellery outlet who bought the stolen jewellery for a very less price.
The accused has been identified as Edwin Jose of Pullanvilai near S T Mangadu in Kanyakumari district. “He has more than 28 cases against him. This includes at least eight in Kerala and four in Tamil Nadu for which he was lodged in jail before he committed many burglaries in 2019 and 2020 for which he has been arrested now,” Thuckalay DSP M Ramachandran said.
Ramachandran said that Jose has confessed to at least 15 burglaries in Kanyakumari district after he came out of jail. The major burglaries he had committed include the ones at Silanga Jewellers in Marthandam on December 15, 2019, and Jayasri Jewellery and the house of its owner on January 28. Six special teams were formed to crack the case.
“Initially, we were not aware that he was an ex-convict. We followed the CCTV footage of the man with helmet collected from the scene of crime at various places in recent months and narrowed down on his place of stay,” the DSP said and added that they deployed police personnel at the locality for nearly 10 days to identify him and his house.
Police said that he was nabbed during a vehicle check near Marthandam on Tuesday. Police claimed that he abandoned his two-wheeler and tried to flee when he fell into a roadside pit and fractured his leg.
Explaining his modus operandi, police said that Jose used to disrobe himself whenever women were alone in the house. “When the occupants closed their eyes in disgust he made use of the opportunity to burgle the house and flee. In the two jewellery outlets, he wore a helmet to conceal his identity as there were CCTV cameras,” the DSP said. According to police, a major share of the loot was recovered from his house.
He also pledged the loot in a leading gold loan company. Jose sold around 80 sovereigns in a jewellery outlet belonging to AIADMK functionary Rameshkumar in Marthandam. Fully aware that they were stolen, the latter had reportedly bought it for half the market price and has not extended cooperation to the police in returning them and has gone underground.
Jose was booked under Sections 457 (house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence) and 380 (theft in a dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Rameshkumar was booked under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC. Jose was lodged in the Palayamkottai Central Prison.