The Vidyaranyapura police on Thursday arrested a tenant, who along with his brother, allegedly robbed his landlady while she was alone at home. The duo — Aravind, 30, who rented a flat in Basava Samithi Layout, and his brother, Avinash, 34, a resident of Basavanagudi — needed money to clear their debts, and decided to rob the family a few days ago.
Aravind, who runs a garment store, lived on rent on the ground floor of a two-storied building owned by the victim Jayashree, 48, a homemaker, and her husband, Subhash C. Bose, a private firm employee.
On June 26, around 8.45 a.m., when Subhash left for work, Aravind and Avinash entered the house wearing masks to hide their identity. They attacked Jayashree, gagged her and threatened to kill her if she called for help.
“They tied her hands and legs with a tape before robbing her gold chain, and earrings. They ransacked the family’s wardrobes and stole two chains, a pair of gold bangles, four rings, 3 kg of silver articles and ₹2 lakh in cash. The total worth of the stolen items was later estimated to be around ₹10 lakh,” said a police officer.
When Jayashree managed to untie herself, she sought the help of her neighbours and alerted the police. “Aravind also arrived at the house, expressed his sympathy for what had happened and offered to help. Initially, we suspected some labourers who were working at a construction site nearby,” said the police officer.
But on verifying CCTV footage from surrounding buildings at the time of incident, the police came across images of Aravind and Avinash in a hurry to go somewhere a few moments after the incident.
When they questioned Aravind, he allegedly confessed to the crime. They had stashed the stolen items at a friend’s house in Basavanagudi, which were later recovered by the police. He told the police that he had sustained heavy losses in his business and had to repay a loan of ₹15 lakh.
