He struck at seven houses in the same locality. And when he was caught he had over two kg of gold jewellery in his kitty, all stolen from houses in the city.
He burgled seven houses in a short span of 14 months in RPC Layout of Vijayanagar and decamped with 2.32 kg gold jewellery, 5kg silver articles, all worth over Rs37 lakh. But the local police at Vijayanagar police station were unable to catch him even after camping at his native place near Chennai.
When the law finally caught up with him - Central Crime Branch (CCB) of city police nabbed him - Sanjupathi was constructing his house on a large housing site.
Police credited the fingerprint experts for the lead in the probe. They traced the fingerprints at all the seven houses to Sanjupathi alias Vadivelu (29). Working on this significant lead, the CCB detectives went on a hunt which culminated in tracking him.
The CCB police team led by assistant commissioner of police (homicide and burglary squad) HR Mahadevaiah landed in Chennai. They finally nabbed Sanjupathi alias Vadivelu (29) along with his associates Javadimalai and Perumal (37), all three residents of Tirupathur in Tamil Nadu, and recovered the stolen property worth Rs37 lakh from them.
According to police, Vadivelu has been a notorious burglar. He had allegedly burgled seven houses in the RPC Layout from August 2008 to October 2009.
Investigation reveals that he visited the posh areas and selected houses which were locked and he entered into the house after breaking either the front or back door. He was almost an expert at this for he had honed it as an art. On some occasions he used to get the help of his associates for the job. Most of the times he was operating alone, police claimed.
The first burglary case against him was registered in the Vijayanagar police station in August 2008. He broke into the house of a businessman, Basavanna, and fled with 80 grams gold jewellery and 500 gram silver articles. In December 2008, he entered the house of Dr Keshava Bhat’s and walked away with 150 grams gold jewellery.
He struck again in the same area in April 2009. This time, his victim was another businessman Manish Mehta and here, he took away 420 gram of gold jewellery. In May 2009, Manjunath’s house was burgled and they lost 450 gram gold jewellery. The same month he struck once again, at Jaideep’s house.
He came back again in September 2009 and burgled retired teacher Nirmala’s house and ran away with 20 grams gold jewellery and 5kg silver articles. He broke into the house of architect Bhaskar in October 2009. From Bhaskar’s house, he escaped with 1.2kg gold jewels, cash Rs4 lakh besides US $ 3000.
The investigation reveals that Vadivalu’s modus operandi spread across Basaveshwara Nagar, Central, Kalasipalya, JP Nagar and Kumar Swamy Layout police station limits.
Vadivelu bought a site in Ernavur near Chennai and he spent Rs8 lakh to construct the basement for a house, police commissioner Shankar M Bidari said.
The police had returned all the property to the complainants on Saturday in a property return parade in BRV parade ground.
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