Pramesh S Jain & Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
The HSR Layout police arrested a 39-year-old house break thief who was involved in as many as 46 cases pending against him .
Senior officer told reporters the team recovered 750 grams of gold valuables which he had stolen from the houses in and around Southeast division for the past one year.
During investigation the police were shocked to know his life style as Pakash Balaji used to live in a fully furnished rented apartment in Murugeshpalya .
Though he had three wives in different parts of the city,he would prefer to visit them often but prefer to live alone,blowing the money on vices like online gambling and drugs,CK Baba, DCP, Southeast,said.
The accused had a big smart TV worth over a lakh which he bought from a reputed showroom to watch his favourite past time which are crime thrillers and stories on famous thefts .
The accused started his career as footwear thief in Kalasipalya when he was 19 years old.
He used to work under a seasoned habitual offender,Kataiah,who used to hire juveniles to steal slippers from outside the temples and religious places to sell it in the market.
Balaji was arrested many times for thefts and every time he goes to prison,he would get updates from the habitual offenders on the tricks of the trade on how to break in and steal.
The modus operandi of the accused is very simple.He would visit the apartments and houses on rent as prospective tenant and while checking, he would click the picture of the key on his mobile clandestinely and get the duplicate key .
The accused would do recee on his scooter and then wait for the families to check into the apartment which he had seen and steal valuables .
The stolen valuables he would sell it to his contacts and spend money on his wives and on himself buying drugs and gambling until he gets into the next targets.
The accused used to work alone but have a fleet of nine advocates to work for him and get him out on bail whenever he was caught.
It is surprising to know despite he was having 46 house-break cases he would come out on bail within 250 days every time,a senior officer said.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,C H Pratap Reddy has appreciated Addl CP East,A subramanyeshwara Rao DCP Southeast,CK Baba, ACP,Lakshminarayan KC,PI,Ravi KB,PSIs,as,Shivappa,Basavaraj Jandhe,and crime staff as,Venkatswamy,Ramachandra,Jay Ganesh, Kattaih,Ramachandra,Anand,Honnappa Poojar,and Maruthi has been appreciated for the excellent and meticulous investigation done by them in nabbing the dreaded HBT offender and recovered Stolen property from his possession a suitable reward will be given to whole team he added.
