Andhra thief who travelled by flights for robberies arrested by Kerala police

The Kerala Police arrested a thief who used flight travel as a means to carry out gold thefts from locked homes on Wednesday, July 5. The thief, identified as Uma Shankar, is a resident of Telangana and was apprehended at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. According to the police, Shankar flew four times over the last two months.

He allegedly went around the city in an auto-rickshaw to identify houses that were locked. “He goes around and finds houses that are locked. He marks them on Google Maps and returns to the place around 10 pm at night and stays hidden somewhere near,” said Thiruvananthapuram City police Commissioner CH Nagaraju, while explaining Shankar’s modus operandi to the media. He further added that Shankar had commonly available cutting tools that he used to breach locked gates and enters the house he had targetted by breaking open doors or windows. 

“In May, he came for a darshan at the Padmanabhaswamy temple and planned the robberies and came back now in July for robbing. He mainly steals gold, pawns them in finance companies, and doesn't take back the gold. That is his modus operandi. He was caught at the airport when he tried to come back once again. With the help of CCTV footage, the police found the auto he travelled in and the auto driver helped us in finding him,” the Commissioner said. The police also said that Shankar was a history sheeter in his teen years in Telangana.