Gold rush: Bardez, Pernem locals fear increasing thefts

Mapusa: Citizens of Pernem and Bardez have every reason to worry with thefts of gold ornaments seeing a steady increase. The police have barely managed to crack a case or two and recover the stolen jewellery. In the past four months, the Mapusa and Pernem police stations have registered nine cases of gold theft either from houses or snatchings.
The most recent case is of Girish Arondekar, a resident of Velvan in Varkhand, Pernem, who complained that on January 27 unknown persons effected entry into his house by break opening the rear door and robbed gold ornaments such as bangles, rings, pairs of earrings all worth 3,42,000.Arondekar and his wife leave for work early morning and are away from their home all day. Police registered an offence under Sections 454, 380 of the IPC and further investigations are in progress.
On the same day, the Mapusa police booked an offence against two unknown persons after a lady from Sakhali complained that the gold chain she was wearing was snatched. Anandi Kauthankar, a resident of Gokulwadi in Sakhali complained that two unknown persons (rider and pillion) on a black motorcycle, snatched her gold mangalsutra weighing 32 g and worth 80,000. The victim was walking on the side of the road near the BSNL telephone exchange at Auchitwada in Tivim. The duo approached her on the pretext of inquiring the time.
In another case Ratnamala Kinlekar from Korgao complained to the Pernem police that her mangalsutra was stolen between January 18 and 21. She named Cynthia Noronha from Parse as a suspect. Acting on the complaint police arrested 20-year-old Noronha, and recovered the gold which she has sold to a gold smith in Mapusa.
On January 18, in a daylight robbery, gold ornaments and cash worth over 4 lakh were stolen from a flat in Mapusa. On January 30, the Mapusa police arrested Vishal Vaigankar from Khorlim in Mapusa for not returning gold ornaments which he had borrowed from Archana Nagvekar from Sodiem in Siolim. Archana had filed a police complaint in this regard at the Mapusa police station.
In November last year, gold ornaments and cash worth 2,67,000 were stolen from a flat in Mapusa.
In October Surekha Naik a woman from Aldona was robbed of her gold ornaments worth 1.5 lakh in Mapusa by an acquaintance, who she claimed, had spiked her drink. The Mapusa police managed to nab the accused in this case. In the same month four unidentified persons broke open the shutters of Salkar jewellery shop at Colvale and made away with 15kg of silver ornaments worth 10 lakh.
The number of theft cases involving gold ornaments in Mapusa and Pernem are increasing and many of them have gone undetected so far. Residents are on edge after the spate of robberies and live in fear of ruthless robbers.