Kochi: What was initially reported as a terrifying daylight robbery of a bedridden elderly woman has turned out to be a meticulously planned inside job. The Muvattupuzha police have cracked the case of the missing 10 sovereigns of gold ornaments worth ₹11.6 lakh from Mancherippady near Marady, exposing a conspiracy hatched by two home nurses from Tamil Nadu.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Sudha Sankar (38), a native of Sempatti in Madurai, and her friend Lakshmi (46), a native of Dindigul. Sudha had been working as a home nurse for the victim, 86-year-old Mariyamma Paily, a retired nursing superintendent who lives alone and suffers from age-related memory loss and vision impairment.

According to Muvattupuzha police, Sudha and Lakshmi, who knew each other from their time working in Dindigul, had been planning the heist for several days. Lakshmi, who was employed as a home nurse at another residence just two kilometres away, was brought into the plot after losing her previous job.

On Saturday night, Sudha sneaked Lakshmi into Mariyamma’s house without the elderly woman’s knowledge, hiding her in one of the vacant rooms.

The operation was executed the following morning, Sunday, May 24, at around 8.30 am, after ensuring the victim’s relatives, who live in an adjacent house on the same property, had left for church. “This was a highly organised and calculated crime,” a senior police officer close to the investigation stated. “To avoid recognition, Lakshmi underwent a complete disguise. She changed into a shirt and pants and wore a cap to disguise herself as a man. She then approached the bedridden woman and stole the four gold bangles, a chain, and a locket she was wearing,” he added. 

According to the police, the disguise explains why the elderly victim initially told relatives that a “man in soiled clothes” had robbed her. It also explained a major loop in the initial investigation: the complete lack of physical injuries on the victim.

“If a male intruder had forcefully stripped the heavy gold, there would have been visible resistance marks or scratches on an 86-year-old's skin. Instead, Lakshmi removed them gently, which is why no defensive wounds were found,” the officer explained.

Following the robbery, Sudha spun an elaborate “imaginary story” to mislead the police. She claimed a thief had overpowered her, locked her inside the attached bathroom and gagged Mariyamma with a cloth. She even broke the plywood door from the inside to make her escape from the bathroom look authentic and later alerted Mariyamma's relatives.

Fearing that Lakshmi might get caught with the stolen wealth on her way back, the duo did not risk moving the gold out of the property immediately. Instead, they hid it on the premises.

The police later recovered the entire haul of stolen gold hidden amidst a pile of discarded diapers and waste in a nutmeg plantation situated at the back of the house.

The breakthrough came through a rigorous, multi-pronged scientific investigation. A team led by Muvattupuzha DySP Abdul Muneer P and Inspector Anil George became highly suspicious of Sudha due to major contradictions in her timeline.

By analysing the Call Data Records (CDR) of the suspects and matching them with CCTV footage from the surrounding main roads, the police managed to track down Lakshmi, who was quietly taken into custody on Monday.

“Sudha held out through hours of intense interrogation without breaking by sticking to her story. But once we picked up Lakshmi separately and questioned her based on our digital evidence, she cracked. She admitted to staying at the house overnight, and the entire fabricated story fell apart,” the officer added. 

The investigation team also included Sub-Inspectors N S Roy, Charlie Thomas, S Sreenath, P C Jayakumar, M  M Ubais, and C B Anilkumar; Assistant Sub-Inspectors M K Girija and A V Dini; and Senior Civil Police Officers Harris H, Ratheesh M P, Sreeju Rajan, Binil Eldhose, and Ajesh A P.

With the entire stolen property fully recovered, the police have recorded the formal arrests of both women. They are currently being held at the station and are expected to be produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody by Wednesday afternoon after the remaining legal procedures are completed.