Ranni: As many as 30 sovereigns of gold and cash worth Rs.20,000 were stolen from a house at Mambara in Perunnad, near Ranni, on Wednesday night when the house owner and family members were away at a hospital in Pathanamthitta town.
The theft took place at 'Gokulam,' the house of Parameshwaran Pillai. He had been undergoing treatment at the hospital for the last many days. His wife and daughter were with him at the hospital at the time of the incident.
The burglary was committed after breaking open one of the big windows of the house. Though a neighbour rushed to the house around 10:30pm upon hearing the sound, the thieves had left the place by then. On being alerted by the neighbour, the Perunad police reached the spot and made a search soon.
The loss of gold ornaments and cash came to light when the family members, who came back from the hospital the next day, searched the cupboards. Three shelves were found completely ransacked by the thieves.
The valuables were stolen from one of the shelves.
The police probe is led by Ranni Deputy Superintendent of Police Mathew George, Circle Inspector U. Rajeev Kumar and Sub-Inspectors Sreejith Janardhanan and Ravindran Nair.
Fingerprint experts and the dog squad have been pressed into service. The sniffer dog ran almost one kilometer through the rubber estate behind the house.
