Bangalore: Craving for gold ornaments turns doctor into skilled thief

Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Mar 8: A woman, who lives at Basaveshwaranagar in the city and is a medical practitioner with MBBS degree, the police learn, has turned into an expert in stealthily moving through ornament shows, and taking away the ornaments she gets attracted to.

Kalpana (51), whose medical practice is not very good, and whose husband works for a security agency, turned ornaments thief several years back, the police personnel claim.

Kalpana, who was caught red-handed while trying to steal gold ornaments from a display of ornaments arranged at a star hotel here recently, has been lodged in Parappana Agrahara jail.  During her interrogation, the police learnt she conducted her medical practice from near her home. After taking her into custody, the police found out that she had been arrested by Subrahmanyanagar police relating to the theft of a laptop in 2008.

A passionate desire to wear gold ornaments drove Kalpana to resort to stealing, it is said. The ornaments she stole were never sold, but only worn by her, said deputy police commissioner of Bangalore (north).

She made it a point to attend ornaments exhibitions held at Palace Ground, Jayamahal etc in the form of a curious onlooker. Last month, she had escaped with gold ornaments weighing about 75 grams from an ornaments exhibition at Jayamahal Palace Hotel, it is said. A complaint about this incident had been registered in J C Nagar police station.

The police, who were looking at this case, guessed that Kalpana was in the habit of attending ornament fairs, and hence expected her to make her presence at the ornaments exhibition at Sheraton Hotel recently. Police personnel, who were quietly keeping an eye on the visitors in plainclothes at this exhibition, caught hold of Kalpana when she was trying to steal gold ornaments.

During her questioning, Kalpana reportedly confessed to her crimes. Gold ornaments worth about Rs 32 lac have been taken back from her possession, the police officers said.