Police nab culprits in theft from Ranji cricketer's house

The Karnataka Police have nailed the culprits who had made a hefty theft from the house of Ranji cricketer Ravikumar Samarth.

It has been revealed that Gowri, 45, who had been employed as a housemaid at Samarth’s house for over a year, was behind the robbery. She gave her two children the duplicate key of the house’s front door to get in when no one was present at the house.

Samarth, a right-handed top-order batsman who made his first-class debut for Karnataka in 2013, lives in the Sanjaynagar locality of North Bangalore with his parents.

According to police, Samarth’s mother Nagarathna had left her house around 12.50 pm on August 20 to visit her daughter, who lives closeby, while the cricketer himself went outside a few minutes later.

However, when Nagarathna came back a few hours later, she was shocked to find the front door open and discovered that more than 360 grams of jewellery worth around Rs. 10 lakhs had gone missing from the house.

Based on her complaint, the Sanjaynagar police launched an investigation, with suspicion on someone who was known to the family as there were no signs of a forced entry and the culprits were aware of the family’s daily activities.

The suspicion fell squarely on Gauri when Nagarathna revealed to the police that she had misplaced a duplicate set of house keys around three months back. When questioned by the investigating officers, the housemaid, who continued to report to work at the house so as not to raise suspicion, gave contradictory answers at first before confessing to the crime.

Gouri revealed that she had informed her son Yogesh, 20 and daughter Deepa, 19, about the house being empty on the afternoon of August 20, thus allowing her children to reach the spot and make an entry using the duplicate set of keys.

The official police statement read: “Gowri hails from Erode in Tamil Nadu and came to the city eight years ago. A month ago, she had stolen the key to Samarth’s house. When Nagarathna did not find the key, she assumed that it may be lost and got a duplicate key made.

“Gowri was watching her movements and, on August 20, she sent her two children to the house when no one was there. She had told them to steal valuables. Yogesh and Deepa rushed to the house, robbed the jewels within 20 minutes and fled from the spot.”