Hyderabad: In a major breakthrough, the Hyderabad police apprehended the 20-year-old accused of house burglary within two days of the case registration, recovering stolen property valued at approximately Rs 26 lakhs.

Acting upon technical evidence and initial investigation findings, the police personnel from the Crime Staff of Pahadishareef police station on Sunday, June 7, apprehended the offender and recovered stolen property consisting of 166 grams of gold ornaments, 257 grams of silver articles, and one screwdriver used during the theft.

The accused was identified as Akumalla Baba Peer, alias Baba, who worked as a mechanic and resided in Housing Board Colony in Ranga Reddy.

He has been booked under Sections 331(4) (house trespass), 305 (theft in a dwelling house) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the police, the accused Baba had a habit of moving around residential colonies during evening hours, when he would identify locked houses and observe movement of the residents in the area. He reportedly gained entry into houses by removing the ventilation glass panes and breaking open the wardrobes using a screwdriver. He would then flee with the stolen gold and silver ornaments and subsequently sold it to unknown individuals across Hyderabad.

He used the sale proceeds for personal expenses, police said.

On Friday, June 6, the complainant, Nenavath Mallikarjun, reported that he had locked his house and left for his native village in Kollapur on June 2 with his family. When they returned on June 4 at about 8:30 pm, Mallikarjun said his family found that in the bedroom, the almirah’s lock had been broken and the locker inside had been opened.

Upon further inspection, they noticed that several gold ornaments, including chains, bangles, bracelets, earrings, rings, along with a one-tola gold biscuit, Silver articles consisting of 20 tolas of silver biscuits and a pair of silver patta golusu were missing.

The ventilation glass panes of the pooja room had been removed, the complainant noted, indicating that unknown offenders had gained entry into the house through it, committing theft during the absence of the family.