Man, girlfriend held for stealing jewels from kin’s house using duplicate keys

The arrested couple, Karthikeyan (24) of Maduravoyal and his girlfriend R Nithya (24) of Koyambedu, were batchmates when they pursued BTech at a private college and are said to be in a relationship for aboutseven years.

Karthikeyan visited his cousin Revathi at her house on Senguttuvan Street in Karambakkam on November 11. On Thursday, after ten days had gone by, Revathi’s husband Jegadeesa Pandian realised that four-sovereign gold jewellery belonging to their daughter had gone missing and lodged a complaint at the Valasaravakkam police station. Crime inspector Amudha registered a case and combed the CCTV footage near the house and found a man and a woman entering the house. Just a few minutes later, they left the premise covering their faces after noticing the CCTV cameras there.

As the couple did not break open the door, police showed the footage to the victims and questioned if they were known to them. Though they initially claimed that they did not know them, Revathi later confided with the police that the man in the CCTV footage was her cousin Karthikeyan.

Karthikeyan was picked up for interrogation, during which he admitted that he stole the jewels and identified the girl who accompanied him as his girlfriend. According to the police, Karthikeyan told them that he devised the plan to steal jewels from cousin’s house after losing money in one of his projects. “When he visited the house on November 11, he stole the house key and duplicated it. Later, he returned on November 13 and placed the original keys when Jegadeesa Pandian and Revathi were out for work. On November 21, after ensuring that the couple was not in the house, Karthikeyan reached there along with Nithya and escaped the jewels,” said the investigation officer.

The couple is said to have spent the money after pledging the jewels. They were remanded in judicial custody on Monday.