Bepore: A woman who hails from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh was nabbed by the Kerala police from Mumbai for stealing 36 sovereigns of gold from her classmate’s house. Thotta Bhanu Soujanya (23), a native of Yanamalakunduru village in Vijayawada was arrested in a joint operation by Feroke ACP crime squad and Bepore police. She is currently remanded at the women’s prison in Mancheri. 

She stole the gold from the house of Kadakandi Shivaraman near Naduvattam ITI. The woman who is a friend and classmate of Shivaraman’s daughter in law Gayathri at a college in Bengaluru had reached their house on May 17 for an academic project.

When she returned on the 19th, she had already stolen around 10 sovereigns of gold. Soujanya then pawned these ornaments in a bank in Bengaluru for Rs 5 lakh. The family, however, was unaware that the ornaments that were kept inside the locker in the almirah was gone. Taking advantage of this, Soujanya returned on July 17 to steal the remaining 26 sovereigns. Some of these were pawned in the bank at Vijayawada and used that money to visit her friend in Tanzania. Meanwhile, the investigative team is now tasked with finding and retrieving the stolen ornaments. 

The police have decided to seek the custody of the woman to take her for gathering evidence. Bepore inspector R Sureshkumar said that the woman has been arrested in the case registered by the Bepore police and investigated by the crime squad of Feroke ACP AM Siddique. 

Crime squad SI Sujith, Bepore SI TT Noushad, senior CPOs Saneesh Pantheerankavu, Anuj Valayanad, Subeesh Vengeri, Bepore ACI K Deepthi Lal, CPO K Usha Devi and CPO P Shilpa were part of the investigative team that arrested Soujanya from Mumbai.