Karkala: In an interesting twist to one of the ‘crime stories’, the Karkala Principal Civil and JMFC Court has held two neighbours guilty in a theft case involving over Rs 40 lac from a cupboard of the house. The person who was held prime accused so far has been acquitted by the court.Rohith Shetty from Pervaje, who was held as prime accused has now been pronounced innocent while Latha M Shetty living near Salmar Naveed Complex and Devananda, resident of an industrial area near S B College have been penalised by the court.

Details

The theft had taken place between 2012 to 2013 in Salmar Naveed Complex and the complainant is Munavar, wife of Abdul Khader.

While Munavar’s husband and children-Minhal, Meheran and Nilofer lived in the Middle East, Munavar was living in a rented house here. She was having a very close relationship with her neighbour Latha M Shetty, to the extent that when she was leaving to Bahrain in 2012, Munavar gave the house keys to Latha Shetty so that the house could be kept clean.

However, when Munavar returned to Karkala in June 2013, her house was locked and even Latha Shetty’s mobile was switched off. Hence Munavar had contacted Latha’s relative Rohith Shetty, who informed that the house key was with Latha’s acquaintance Dayanand. Within some time, Rohith had come to meet Munavar and handed over the house key.

On opening the door, Munavar found that her cupboards were broken open and valuable such as ornaments, watches, mobiles and cash all summing up to Rs 40 lac were missing.

A case was registered and the police found that the accused had pledged the valuables at Muthoot Finance and a bank.

Judge Ramesh Mahajan Appasaheb heard the case had acquitted Rohith Shetty and held Latha and Dayanand guilty. They have been given two years of imprisonment and 4,000 penalty. They will have to serve two months of jail in case they fail to pay the penalty.