Nagpur: Fifty-seven-year-old Vinod Dave, who owns a snacks shop at Mangalmurti Square, had claimed before Rana Pratap Nagar police that gold valuables weighing 160 grams and Rs1.70lakh cash, together worth Rs4.90lakh, were stolen from his residence, located in Modern Society. Dave, along with his family, had gone to watch a movie on Sunday night when the burglary took place.
Police swung into action and arrested Amol Raut (30) within 12 hours of the crime. Raut took the police team to the ground belonging to Nav Nirman Society, a few metres away from the Dave residence, and helped them unearth the booty he had buried there.
However, when police dug it out, they found that the gold ornaments weighed 205 grams and the cash was Rs5.20 lakh, together worth Rs10.17 lakh, more than double of what Dave had claimed in his complaint.
This is when the police questioned the family and Dave’s wife, Meera, came forward and admitted that she had been saving up cash and buying gold ornaments with it for some time now.
It may be noted that many housewives tend to squirrel away some cash or valuables for saving purpose. During Demonetisation many cases in family across India saw housewives bringing out their hidden saving and here in this case a burglary detection unearthed Meera Dave’s substantial stash of cash and gold ornaments.
DCP (crime) Sambhaji Kadam said, “Raut confessed to have stolen the valuables and cash from the Dave house. But when there was a difference between what had been claimed stolen and what was recovered, we questioned the family members and found out about the secret stash.”
Police said that on Sunday night, Raut was still inside the Dave residence when the family returned home. Panicking, Raut jumped over the rear boundary wall and escaped under the cover of darkness. The family saw an unattended bike in front of their home and immediately called police, who arrived at the scene shortly.
“While our team was inspecting the place, Raut, who is employed with a private company, hid in the vicinity as he wanted to take his bike,” API Gorakh Kumbhar, zone I crime branch, told media. “But when Raut saw that the police had seized the bike, he got scared and realized that he would soon be caught. Therefore, he buried the valuables in the ground on Monday at 4:30am.”
Raut also told police that he climbed up a nearby tree and stayed there for a few hours to stay out of sight. Later, he ran away from the place, leaving behind the valuables. He went to Jamtha, Khapri and Satgaon before being netted.
Cops said Raut, a resident of Butibori, had earlier been nabbed by Butibori police for suspicious behaviour. In the present case, he was booked for burglary and remanded to police custody until Thursday.
