720 sovereigns, Rs 2 lakh stolen from house of Salem businesswoman

Police said that Vijayalakshmi (45), a metal and plywood businesswoman, owned a house on Angalamman Temple Street in Kitchipalayam, Salem. She was running her business on Marakadai Street in Shevapet after her husband’s death. While Vijayalakshmi and her two children lived on the ground floor, her brother Baskar was residing on the first floor and her parents on the top floor.

On Sunday, families of Vijayalakshmi and Baskar had gone to Tirupathi. When they returned, Vijayalakshmi was shocked to see the almirah open and the valuables missing. Similarly, the jewellery that were kept in her brother’s house was also missing. 

During investigations, police found out that the burglars had reportedly taken away the recorder of the CCTV camera in the house. It is suspected that the culprits might have gained entry into the house by removing the glass panes in the bathroom at the back of the house.

The burglars had left a note in the almirah warning the occupants not to go the police. A sniffer dog that was brought to the spot, ran up and down the house and to a short distance from there, leading to suspicion of an insider’s role in the crime.

Salem City Police commissioner Sanjay Kumar said that six special teams have been formed to nab the accused. The police are also on the lookout for Subramani, a purohit, as he was the one who had suggested the family to visit Tirupati. 

They also suspect Baskar’s brother-in-law Gowtham as he had stayed back in the house when Baskar had gone to Tirupati. He also had the keys to the almirah where the jewellery had been kept.

Eighty sovereigns of jewellery were burgled from the house of a professor couple at Gomathy Nagar, in Madurai, on Monday. The incident happened in the evening when Raja Govindasamy, retired principal of a private college and his wife, Ashadevi, a college professor, had gone to visit some relatives at Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district. When both returned, they were shocked to find the front door of the house broken. 

Subsequently, when the couple checked, they found around 80 sovereigns of jewels kept in the bureau missing. They have lodged a police complaint. Investigations were carried out with a sniffer dog and fingerprint experts.