PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE /Dehradun
The Rishikesh police have arrested an interstate thief from Andhra Pradesh for allegedly stealing jewellery and cash from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh residential campus, officials said. Police recovered gold and silver worth about Rs 50 lakh, three fake Aadhaar cards, a screwdriver used in the thefts and other items from his possession, police said. The accused, identified as Mandalapu Shiva Anjaneyulu (43) was arrested near Kali Mata Temple on Dehradun Road in Rishikesh on Saturday. The Dehradun superintendent of police Pramendra Dobal said that the accused carries out thefts alone and targets high-end residential colonies.
A case was registered after a resident of the AIIMS campus reported that jewellery and Rs 60,000 in cash had been stolen from his locked house on July 20. Dobal said that the accused first surveyed the AIIMS residential colony posing as a patient before breaking into a locked house. “He was in jail in a theft case in Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, where he met with high profile crooks who taught him tactics of theft. During interrogation, he also confessed to committing a similar theft at the residential quarters of Rajkot Civil Hospital in Gujarat on July 27. Gujarat police confirmed that a case had also been registered there,” Dobal said.
“He is a habitual offender and used fake Aadhaar cards with different identities to stay in hotels and lodges to avoid being caught. The recovered jewellery has been linked to the thefts at AIIMS Rishikesh and Rajkot. The further investigation is underway to find out whether the accused was involved in similar crimes in other States,” Dobal added.
