Arrested professional thief turns out to be a progressive farmer

• Accused, regular organizer of theatre plays and cultural festivals
• 210 grams of stolen ornaments recovered

Karkala: A person involved in several theft cases was arrested by Karkala rural police and turned out to be a progressive farmer, involved in social work and organizing cultural activities in his village.  The arrested has been identified as Shailesh Shetty from Mundkur and was arrested on the suspicion of getting involved with various thefts in Mundkur within the rural police station limits here. He took to robbery to settle his bets as he was a habitual gambler, inform the police.

Shailesh took top farming after his father’s demise and cultivated his five acre land. Though not educated, he took care of his family well. He was a bachelor but got his sisters married. He is a regular organizer of theatre plays and cultural festivals in his village.  His friends assure that he was always ready to lend a helping hand to people in the village. His village is yet to come to terms with his arrest and crime.

The accused admitted of his crimes blaming it on his addiction to gambling and frequent betting on cricket matches and cock fights in the village. He also had taken loan for agriculture.

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Shailesh’s modus-operandi was to target the houses of his relatives and close ones for thefts. He used to win over the confidence of the target families by helping them with the work of plucking of coconuts, cutting down of the trees and other works. Once he gained free entry into their houses, he used to steal gold ornaments and flee, allege his close ones.

In 2017, complaints were filed on the theft of gold ornaments from the house of Jaya N Shetty and Jyoti Shetty from Mundkur and similar theft from the house of Ramesh Shetty during this year. Local police circle inspector, Joy Antony, conducted investigation under the guidance of Karkala deputy superintendent of police and district superintendent of police and successfully cracked the cases and nabbed the accused. Also 210 grams of stolen ornaments were recovered from his possession.

On August 6th, the accused was produced in the court which remanded him to judicial custody. The district police have announced prize of Rs 10,000 to the investigation team in this case. Police sub-inspector of rural station, Vasappa Naik, and others were involved with the investigation.