The skyrocketing gold price appears to have led a few in the State down the criminal path, if recent theft cases reported from different parts of Kerala are any indication. Those arrested for allegedly snatching gold chains of late include two local politicians and a school employee — all first-time offenders. The accused, driven by mounting financial stress, ended up in trouble even as gold prices continued to hover around ₹1 lakh per sovereign.
Kuthuparamba Municipal Councillor P.P. Rajesh was arrested on October 18 for allegedly snatching a gold necklace from a 77-year-old woman of Kanniyarkunnu while she was cleaning fish in her kitchen yard. He was suspended from the CPI(M) following the incident.
According to the police, Rajesh confessed that mounting debts had driven him to commit the crime. The same reason was reportedly cited by Shajahan of Koduvayur, a former unit president of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), who was arrested by the Kuzhalmannam police in Palakkad for allegedly snatching a gold chain from an elderly woman in the second week of October. In August, Sampath, then an office assistant with a government-aided school at Choolannoor, was arrested by the Alathur police in Palakkad for a similar offence. While Shajahan allegedly snatched the ornament of a milk seller, Sampath reportedly stole the necklace of a woman who was returning after her work as part of the national rural employment scheme.
A West Bengal native was recently arrested by the Kothamangalam police for allegedly snatching a gold necklace from an elderly woman at Puthuppadi in Ernakulam. The 28-year-old youth reportedly forced the woman out of her house, claiming that he spotted a snake on the premises of her house. He allegedly snatched her ornament when the woman was frantically looking for the snake. He was nabbed from Muvattupuzha on October 22, a day after the incident.
“Though there is no data showing any increase in gold theft cases in recent times, it is notable that the victims in most of the recent cases were elderly women. While young women prefer to wear thin necklaces, older people, often out of habit, prefer to wear visibly heavier ornaments, sometimes ending up in trouble. The rise in price of gold could have been a reason behind the recent thefts committed by first-time offenders, with all of them claiming financial burdens drove them to wrongdoing,” an officer with the Ernakulam rural police said.
A three-member bike-borne gang had reportedly snatched a necklace weighing three sovereigns from a 72-year-old woman in broad daylight at Kozhenchery in Pathanamthitta in August. In a major gold theft reported in the State recently, 45 sovereigns of gold were stolen from the house of a doctor at Chevarambalam near Chevayur in Kozhikode in September. A serial offender from West Bengal was arrested in the case.
Published – October 27, 2025 12:17 am IST
