Keralite who had worked as a cop in Bahrain held for Bengaluru jewellery shop theft

Bengaluru: Jul 19: The Commercial Street police on Monday arrested a dismissed constable of the Bahrain police on the charge of stealing a set of six gold bangles from a jewellery shop on June 25.

The police gave the name of the arrested as Pilakal Nazir (55), a native of Kerala and resident of New Gurappanapalya here. He is a habitual offender and has cases against him in 11 police stations. The police said Nazir used to work as a police constable in Bahrain.

Posing as a businessman, Nazir went to Malabar Gold and Diamond shop on Commercial Street and escaped with a pack of six gold bangles, concealing it in his blazer. The Commercial Street police, who obtained the CCTV footage, identified Nazir. They set up a special team led by Inspector M Ramesh to track him down. The police finally nabbed Nazir on Monday.

The police have recovered four gold bangles worth Rs 3 lakh from him, along with a motorcycle and a scooter which he had stolen from a showroom in BTM layout.

Nazir was earlier arrested by the Madiwala police on charges of stealing a car from a showroom in Tamil Nadu after taking the car out for a test drive. He had come out on bail recently from Bengaluru Central Prisons at Parappana Agrahara, the police said.

It is learnt that he had worked as police constable in Bahrain from 1998 to 2006. He returned to Bengaluru after being sacked from the job. He has around a dozen cases against him in city police stations and one in Chennai.