Bhubaneswar: The Tamando police Friday arrested a 29-year-old man for allegedly robbing cash and gold jewellery worth over Rs3 lakh from his landlord’s house around a week ago.
Inspector-in-Charge (IIC) Tamando, Subrat Kumar Meher, identified the accused as Lokanath Mohapatra, a native of Khurdha town under Begunia police station limits. He said two gold chains and two pairs of gold bangles have been recovered from the accused following his arrest.
Meher said the complainant lived on the ground floor of his house in Kalinga Vihar area while rented out the first floor to Mohapatra. “The families had a cordial relationship,” Meher said.
During interrogation, Mohapatra allegedly admitted that he was in the habit of picking articles from his landlord’s house frequently while the latter would be busy with other things.
Giving details of the theft September 29, Meher said the house owner along with his family went to a temple in the vicinity of their house in the morning. They locked the house from outside and concealed the keys on a shoe rake. Once they left, Lokanath came down and unlocked the main door using the keys. He then took away Rs50,000 cash and gold jewellery worth over Rs3 lakh kept in the cupboards, Meher said.
Mohapatra thereafter mortgaged the valuables in a local bank against a loan of Rs3.60 lakh.
The house owner discovered the burglary following his return and approached the Tamando police with a complaint.
PNN