In a major breakthrough, Shirva police arrested two individuals, including an accomplice involved in selling stolen jewellery, recovering 248.76 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs22.32 lakh.
The accused are K.E. Mohammed from Uppala, who allegedly tried to sell stolen gold received from the notorious inter-district thief Itte Barpe Abubakkar. Abubakkar, already arrested by Shirva police, had confessed to multiple thefts across several districts.
The case traces back to a burglary on June 27 at the residence of Pavithra Poojarthy near Babbaraya Daivasthana in Mattaru. Thieves broke in by tampering with window hooks and latches and stole around 137 grams of gold ornaments. Following a complaint, the Shirva police registered a case.
On July 21, police arrested prime suspect Abubakkar at Moodbidri and recovered 66.76 grams of gold worth Rs7.50 lakh along with the scooter used in the crime. During interrogation, he revealed that part of the stolen gold was handed to Mohammed for sale. This led to Mohammed’s arrest and recovery of an additional 182 grams of gold linked to thefts across Shirva, Padubidri, and Karkala rural jurisdictions.
Both accused have been remanded to judicial custody.
The investigation, led by Udupi SP Hariram Shankar and additional SP Sudhakar S. Naik, along with Karkala ASP Dr. Harsha Priyamvada, was executed by teams from Kaup and Shirva police. The operation covered five districts: Shivamogga, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Gadag, and Mangaluru.
Despite the absence of CCTV surveillance in Mattaru, police leveraged call data records (CDR) and examined footage from nearly 200 cameras across Shirva to track down the suspects. The operation underscored the importance of community cooperation and surveillance in crime prevention.
PSI Manjunath Marabath urged residents to install CCTV cameras to assist in future investigations.
