Neighbour arrested for stealing Rs one crore and 300 gold sovereigns

Kannur, Dec 2 (IANS) The local police at Kannur on Monday arrested a person named Lijish after he admitted to robbing his neighbour of Rs one crore in cash and 300 sovereigns of gold.

Lijish lives next door to Ashraf, a prominent rice wholesale merchant in Valapattanam near here.

Two weeks back, after he returned from a small tour he undertook with his family he was shocked to see that thieves had made off with Rs 1 crore in cash and 300 sovereigns of gold kept in his home.

Soon the police arrived and then began a manhunt for this high-value crime. Lijish behaved as if nothing had happened.

“We had called him to take a statement as he was the neighbour of Ashraf and he came and gave his statement and returned. After a few days when the visuals surfaced, we had a doubt and further probes led us to his house and the cash and gold was recovered,” said an officer attached to the Valapattanam police station.

“The police were able to recover Rs one crore and 267 sovereigns of gold from his house kept in a locker under his bed,” said the official.

It was the fingerprint of Lijish which sealed the fate of him and his involvement in the crime when they were able to match his with that of the fingerprint taken from another house in the district which he had robbed last year.

The police secured the same fingerprint from the house of Ashraf also and on questioning, he admitted to doing both the robberies.

The police pointed out that Lijish, being a welder by profession, used his tools to commit the robbery at Ashraf’s house, which he did over two days.

It was on Sunday the police took Lijish into custody and on detailed questioning, he owned up to the crime.

With the news of the arrest of Lijish spreading, a huge crowd from the locality came to the Valapattanam police station.

“We are all locals and we have not come to terms with the news that Lijish did it,” was the instant reaction of many who had come to the station.