Rs 1-cr burglary at upmarket society

Thieves target Kharadi's Gera Green Villa hsg soc bungalow of family back from Dubai after 28 yrs

Rs 1-cr burglary at upmarket society

Thieves target Kharadi's Gera Green Villa housing society bungalow of family back from Dubai after 28 yrs

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It was a moment of shock, worry and despair for the D'Souza family, residents of Kharadi's plush Gera Green Villa society, after they found their bungalow burgled and valuables and cash (Indian and foreign currency) worth Rs 1 crore stolen. The D'Souzas lived with their son Amedeus.u00a0

u00a0After living in Dubai for 28 years, the D'Souza family had returned to India on May 29, 2010. Margaret D'Souza is a homemaker. Her husband Arnold works as the sales manager in Consolidated Carpets Industries Limited (CCIL) based in Mumbai. Earlier he worked as an administration manager in Al-Abbas, a Dubai-based company.

The D'Souza family hails from Goa and had purchased the bungalow in 2005. They had visited the bungalow once during 2008 and 2009 during their vacations.
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"Our lovely life in India is doomed. We have lost our hard earned money including the wedding rings and chains. We never thought that such thing would happen in India," said Margaret Dsouza.

16 detained
The Yerawada police have detained 16 security personnel and labourers working in the society.

The bungalow has three bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining and a living room. According to the family, they had not employed any domestic help nor was any work carried out in the recent past. "There is no possibility of any outsider entering our house on the pretext of work. That's why we believe that the information was either leaked or a security guard may have been responsible," Margaret said. "The burglars have stolen only small portable items like a camcorder, wrist watches, digital cameras, jewellery and cash. They did not touch any other big items. Some matchsticks were also found lying on the floor."

u00a0Arnold D'Souza said, "We went to our native place in Goa for a vacation. When we returned on Sunday night at around 8.45 pm, we found that the front door of the bungalow, the safety door latch and lock were broken. All things were messed up and our house was ransacked. We immediately called our neighbours and they informed the local police station."

Security lapses
"The first and the obvious question that came to our mind was about the security. Although the security guards are posted in day and night shifts, the security is very slack. We have called up the manager of the Force One security agency and also the builder," said Arnold. "Now our neighbours have became alert."

u00a0Emphasising on the security lapse, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Sanjay Jadhav said, "Although we take regular preventive action against criminals on police records and conduct regular night rounds, a peripheral patrolling by the private security personnel is also required at the Gera Green Villa society. But the security is lax as the guards sleep at night."

Police Inspector Deepak Sawant said, "We have carried out combing operation and checked habitual criminals. The suspects have committed the crime either with the help of duplicate keys or by forcing open the latch."

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