Theft occurred at K V Puttappa aka Kuvempu’s ancestral home, now a museum, on Monday when the watchman was on a break
Shivamogga: Burglars have decamped with the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan medals conferred on renowned Kannada poet late K V Puttappa after breaking into his memorial at Kuppalli in the district.
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The thieves ransacked the showcases after snipping the CCTV links and fled with the medals kept in the ancestral home of Puttappa, the first Kannada writer to get Jnanpith in 1967, police said. The poet’s ancestral house has been converted into a memorial.
Puttappa, popular as Kuvempu, received Padma Bushan in 1958 and Padma Vibhushan in 1988. Both the medals are missing from the glass case kept on the first floor, said a museum official. Police said they have obtained clues from the cameras and will soon nab the culprits.
Shivamogga Superintendent of Police Ravi Channnavar said, “We have obtained some clues from CCTV footage before they were destroyed and will soon arrest the culprits." Cops claim the theft took place after the watchman went for dinner between 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm on Monday night.
Except the two awards all the artefacts and exhibits of the poet depicting his commendable contributions to Kannada literature are safe, museum officials said. Puttappa, a novelist, poet, playwright, critic and thinker, was an iconic literary figure in Karnataka.
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