The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Man held, 18 cases solved

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Saturday, Oct 07, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Man held, 18 cases solved

Staff Reporter

The accused had a fondness for expensive music systems

Bangalore: The city police claimed to have solved at least 18 cases of burglary with the arrest of Manja (24) alias Manjunath, also known as "Deck Manja," because of his fondness for stealing music systems of the more expensive variety.

Only in one incident did he use force, but was otherwise "not violent," police said. The lone victim was Agastya, a scientist and resident of Vijayanagar, who tried to prevent Manja from leaving with his booty.

In all other cases, he used to lock up the occupants of the house who were asleep and use a carefully chosen escape route. In a few cases, he threatened people with his pistol but there was no record of his having fired a single round. He wore "cargo pants," not to be fashionable but for their deep pockets that can accommodate jewellery and other stolen articles. "He said he never touched the mangalasutra for sentimental reasons," according to city Police Commissioner Neelam Achuta Rao.

The accused told the police that after serving a sentence, he started reading crime novels and also read about the exploits of Charles Sobhraj. These influenced him to cultivate a more suave approach to crime, shunning violence.

Among the recovered goods displayed on Friday were silver articles weighing 1.5 kg, three laptops, an Indica car, three mobile phones, DVD players, an air pistol and gold jewellery weighing 850 gm.

The burglaries took place in Viveknagar, Byappanahalli, City Market, Ramamurthynagar, Banaswadi, Mahalakshmi Layout, Subramanyanagar, Rajajinagar, Seshadripuram, Tilknagar, Basavanagudi, Basaveshwaranagar, Vyalikaval and Vijayanagar.

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