Kalaburagi police crack ₹20.40-lakh burglary case; suspect arrested, stolen gold recovered

The Kalaburagi City Police have solved a major house break-in and theft case reported from Eshwar Nagar Layout, recovering gold and silver ornaments valued at about ₹20.40 lakh and arresting the accused within days.

Police Commissioner S.D. Sharanappa, addressing a press conference in his office on Thursday, stated that the swift breakthrough was the result of coordinated efforts by teams from the South Division, acting under the supervision of senior officers.

The case relates to a complaint filed by Eeranna Y. Pattedar, a 65-year-old retired government employee, who had locked his house on November 20 to visit his daughter and son-in-law in Bagalkot. When he returned on November 22 around 7 p.m., he found the main door lock broken and the valuables kept in an almirah missing. The stolen property included a large quantity of gold ornaments such as chains, necklaces, lockets, mangalsutras, bangles, earrings, and rings of varying weights, in addition to silver pooja articles and ₹60,000 in cash. The total loss was estimated at ₹20,62,000.

A case was registered at the Station Bazaar Police Station under relevant sections of the IPC.

Following directions from Commissioner Sharanappa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Kanika Siktaeval, DCP (Crime and Traffic) Praveen Naik, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) Sharanabasappa supervised the investigation. A special team led by Inspector Gurulingappa M. Patil worked across multiple leads and traced the accused, identified as Naveen Joshi, aged 49, a cook by profession from Emmekere in Dharwad district and currently residing in Kalwad Basti, Pune, where he was arrested.

Gold worth ₹20.40L recovered

During interrogation, the accused confessed to committing the burglary. The police subsequently recovered a significant quantity of stolen gold from him. Of the 400 gm of ornaments he had decamped with, only 230 gm were found to be original gold worth ₹20.40 lakh, while the remaining 170 gm were brass items used for puja. The recovery included several gold chains, necklaces, pattaligas, mangalsutras, earrings and children’s rings.

The police also seized imitation bangles, a fake mangalsutra, a Lakshmi har and a chain that he had attempted to mix with the stolen property, along with a toolkit containing pliers and a small gas cylinder used for melting ornaments.

CCTV camera footage, mobile data helped

The police tracked the movement of the accused using mobile phone location data and CCTV camera footage. According to the Commissioner, Joshi had travelled to Solapur and later moved to Pune after committing the crime.

Explaining how the accused had reached Kalaburagi, the Commissioner said Joshi had boarded a train from Pune towards Kanyakumari without a valid ticket. When the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) checked the train near Bablad, he was made to alight at the Kalaburagi railway station. It was after this that he roamed the locality, identified the locked house, and executed the burglary. The Commissioner added that the accused had used hand gloves while breaking into the house to avoid leaving fingerprints.

Mr. Sharanappa said the accused had earlier been involved in a case under the Shaktinagar police limits in Raichur, for which he had served a three-year sentence in the Kalaburagi Central Prison.