Tamil Nadu: Retired cop's house burgled when family away for his last rites

CHENNAI: The house of Nallamma Naidu, a retired superintendent of police who died last month, was burgled on Friday. Naidu was former chief minister Jayalalithaa's thorn in the flesh as far as the corruption case against the leader was concerned. He was put incharge of the case by the DMK government initially, but he never flinched from his responsibility even when the AIADMK returned to power, till the ex-CM was convicted for disproportionate assets.
Police said Naidu's family members had gone to his native district of Theni to perform some remaining last rites for the office, when the house in Peravallur was broken into and valuables stolen. The theft came to light after one of the relatives went to Naidu's house in Periyar Nagar to clean it and found the main door lock was tampered. He immediately alerted Naidu's son Saravanan about the incident.
Saravanan informed his relative to check for the belongings at the safe. The man called Saravanan through the video call and showed the house and the broken safe.
Naidu's family estimated that around seven sovereign gold and 50,000 kept in the almirah were stolen by the suspects. Based on his instruction, his relative has filed a complaint at the Peravallur police station.
After Naidu's sudden demise on November 16, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin visited his house and paid homage to Naidu before his body was taken to his native village in Theni.
The Peravallur police have registered a case and a team of forensic experts have lifted the sets of fingerprints from Naidu's house to check if any previous offenders were involved in the theft.
Chennai city commissioner of police Shankar Jiwal said: "We have collected CCTV camera footage from the residences and shops nearby to trace the suspect. As we didn't know when the incident happened, we are checking the data from November 16."
Another officer said that due to incessant rain, policemen on patrol duty didn't visit the area recently. There was a police outpost where the patrolling cops maintain a ledger to sign in at the record book whenever they go on night patrolling.