Youth held for stealing 63 sovereigns of gold from locked house

ERODE: A youth was arrested on Wednesday for stealing gold ornaments weighing 63 sovereigns from a house in Erode city on Tuesday evening after opening the main door with the key that inmates had hid on its premises. Police have recovered the stolen gold from him.According to the Karungalpalayam police, burglary took place at the house of auditor Rajan and his wife Nirmala at Lakshmi Narayanan Nagar when they went out for some business purposes.“They are running a textile business in Tirupur. The couple went out around 3pm. After a while, their son Jayakrishna also went out after locking the main door. When his parents returned home around 6pm, they found someone had searched the almirah and taken away gold ornaments kept in it,” a police officer said.Rajan lodged a complaint with the Erode Town police, who registered a case and pressed forensic experts into service.Preliminary inquiry revealed that the family members were in the habit of hiding the main door key on the premises of their house itself. “After locking the main door on Tuesday, they hid the key at the usual place. We were sure that the burglary was committed by a person known to the family and their routine. On suspicion, we picked up Jayakrishna’s friend Mayilsamy, 25, of the same locality, for questioning. He confessed to the crime, and we recovered the stolen gold from him,” the officer said.District superintendent of police A Sujatha commended the Karungalpalayam police for arresting the culprit within 12 hours of reporting the crime. She also emphasized on the need to install CCTV cameras in residential areas to curb crimes.