Mangalore, July 13, 2013: Four women from West Bengal were arrested from a jewellery shop at Kochi when they had been to the shop to rob gold ornaments in the guise of customers. Reports said during interrogation, they have confessed that they were also involved in thefts from gold shops in Mangalore and Bangalore.
The four arrested are Mumtaz Begum (50), Yaseen Sheikh (54), Nebia Bivi (45) and Ameena Sheikh (55). It may be recalled here the police have so far not made any headway into the investigations into the theft of jewellery from the Gold Palace and Tanishq jewellery shops in Mangalore.
Reports said the Kochi police have seized Rs 1.5 lakh cash and gold ornaments from the women.
It is said they were arrested from the Malabar Gold showroom at MG Road Kochi where they had been on the pretext of customers. However, an alert salesman on seeing them was reminded of a theft by a group of women in March 2011. When the CCTV footages confirmed that it was the same group, the police were informed and the five trapped on the spot.
The women posed as if they were from affluent families and spoke fluent English. It is suspected that they might have stolen gold worth about Rs 1.5 crores until now.