Robbers decamp with valuables worth Rs 7 lakh

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four unidentified men, who broke into a house at Menamkulam during the early hours of Sunday plundered valuables worth nearly Rs 7 lakh after taking hostage of an elderly couple in the house. The robbers tied down the 74-year-old woman and silenced her by thrusting a cloth into her mouth before decamping with the valuables. They left the woman’s 80-year-old husband unharmed as he was bedridden.
The robbery took place at the residence Milandev Santhi House, Panchayathunada at Menamkulam under Kazhakkoottam police station limits, where the aged couple Sahadevan and Santha lived. The loot include around 30 sovereigns of gold ornaments, including those worn by Santha and those kept inside the almirah, a camera worth Rs 10,000, a mobile phone worth Rs 6,000 and Rs 11,000 in cash.
According to the complaint filed by Santha, the four men entered her house around 1.15am. She had dozed off on sofa watching TV and woke up realizing that someone was tying her body with the sofa. They spoke to her in a calm voice and told her not to make any noise. They then went on to remove the ornaments on her body.
“The woman was wearing relatively heavy jewellery at that time of the night, which made things easy for the robbers,” said a police officer attached to Kazhakkoottam police station. She was wearing a waist chain that weighed nine sovereigns, three bangles weighing 1.25 sovereigns each, another bangle weighing 2 sovereigns, a necklace weighing 2 sovereigns attached with a 2g locket, three rings weighing 0.75 sovereigns each and a pair of earrings that weighed in total 1.5 sovereign.
The robbers then went on to scour the almirah in which there were two chains worth 4.5 and 2 sovereigns, a ring weighing 1 sovereign and three pairs of earrings with each pair weighing 1 sovereign, 4g and 2g.
Kazhakkoottam sub-inspector S Sreejith said that the robbers entered the house by breaking the lock of a door on the first floor from the terrace.
By 2.30am she managed to untie the knots and informed her neighbours, who in turn called the police.
Sahadevan and Santha lived alone in their villa as their children and family were settled in the UK. The couple had returned from the UK last year. Santha has told police that all the culprits were youths, apparently below the age of 30 and she could identify their faces again.