Hyderabad: Techie turns robber, gets caught in the first attempt

Hyderabad: A techie, who was facing financial constraints due to the pandemic, allegedly turned to crime and robbed a woman, but ended up being caught by the KPHB police on Friday. The police recovered cash and a gold chain weighing about 10 tolas from him.

The arrested person was identified as Gautham Raj (27), an engineering graduate from Nalanda in Bihar, who had moved to the city and was staying with his wife and children at Siddiq Nagar in Hitec City for the last six months.

According to the police, Raj, who worked as a test engineer for a software firm, had also worked as a food delivery executive due to insufficient income during the pandemic. He had borrowed hand loans worth about Rs.2 lakh from his friends but failed to repay them.

“As pressure mounted on him to repay the loans, he turned to crime,” police said, adding that on July 4, posing as a courier boy, Raj went to a house in Balaji Nagar in KPHB with a parcel saying it was to be delivered at the address. When the house owner, a woman, told it was not theirs, he left the place, but returned the next day and allegedly threatened her and robbed her of jewelry.

During the robbery, his mobile phone fell at the spot and to evade police, he went to the Madhapur police station and lodged a complaint that his phone was lost. The police, who grew suspicious, detained him for questioning during which he confessed to the crime.