A 26-year-old unemployed graduate has been arrested for allegedly stealing valuables from a high-rise apartment in Bengaluru, where he lived with his sister, the police said Tuesday.
Seemant Kumar Singh, Commissioner, Bengaluru police, announced the arrest of Nitesh Subbu, who lives in GM Infinite E City Town, Electronics City, Phase 2. Singh said they have seized 15.79 gram of diamond jewellery, 621 gram of gold ornaments, 56.2 gram of silver, and Rs 28,000 cash from him.
The value of the recovered items stood at Rs 60.46 lakh, he added.
Knowledge of building layout and residents’ schedules
The police said the theft came to light after a resident discovered that the front door of one of the flats was broken. They said the flat belonged to Suresh Iyer, a 62-year-old academic working in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The professor’s house had been locked for several days, as he and his wife visited Bengaluru occasionally.
On June 4, Iyer’s wife received a call from a neighbour reporting that their front door had been broken. She immediately contacted her nephew, who rushed to the apartment to assess the damage, and check if any valuables were missing. The nephew filed a complaint with the Hebbagodi police on June 5.
A police officer said the suspect, Subbu, whose sister lived in the adjacent block, had carefully observed the professor’s routine when he visited Bengaluru. The officer said the proximity of his sister’s residence also provided him with knowledge of the building’s layout and the residents’ schedules.
While reviewing the apartment complex’s CCTV footage, they saw a man in a T-shirt and shorts searching suspiciously around various flats. He was later identified as Subbu.
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The police said their investigations showed Subbu’s calculated approach to selecting targets. He would begin by ringing the doorbells of apartments he intended to target. If someone answered, he would make an excuse and leave, but if there was no response, he would search for the keys in common hiding spots, such as shoe racks or flowerpots. When keys weren’t available, he would force entry using an iron rod.
The police said that after he was detained Monday, Subbu confessed to the theft. They added that they also found that he was involved in two more thefts that had taken place in the apartment on June 22.