An elderly woman named Kumari, from Chengannur in Kerala, had gone to visit her son’s house in Chennai. From there, she took 50 sovereigns of gold jewelry intended for a wedding and traveled alone on November 3 on a train from Chennai to Chengannur.
Meanwhile, Balamurugan, a man from the Dindigul area who boarded the same train from Salem in Tamil Nadu, noticed that the elderly woman was carrying jewelry. While the train was traveling between Palakkad and Thrissur, Balamurugan deftly stole the elderly woman’s 50 sovereigns of gold jewelry without leaving any trace and escaped.
Based on the complaint filed by the affected elderly woman, Kerala Railway Police and Railway Protection Force personnel conducted an intensive investigation together. To avoid being identified, Balamurugan wore a mask and stole the jewelry. Later, to avoid being recognized in CCTV cameras, he changed his shirt at several places. This initially posed a challenge for the police in cracking the case. Following this, the police examined footage from more than 600 CCTV cameras at railway stations and surrounding areas.
They also conducted intensive questioning of 10 suspicious individuals.

Using CCTV footage and AI technology to crack the case, it was confirmed that the person involved in the theft was Balamurugan from Dindigul district. Police then kept monitoring his social media pages, where he posted reels wearing one of the stolen necklaces around his neck.
Following that, it was confirmed that Balamurugan was involved in the theft. Balamurugan, who has a large number of followers on Instagram, had been portraying himself on social media as a devout person and someone with a kind heart who helps the poor and needy. In his hometown of Dindigul as well, he had been known as a popular figure among the local people.

Even after robbing 50 sovereigns of jewelry on a train, Balamurugan returned to his hometown without any sign of panic and celebrated the Diwali festival grandly with his family. For Diwali, he handed out expensive gifts to the villagers and took part in the celebrations, moving around as if he were a good man.
In this situation, Kerala police, who had been closely tracking Balamurugan’s movements for the past week, found that he had gone to Coimbatore to sell the stolen jewelry. Following this, when he tried to sell the jewelry in Coimbatore, Kerala police and the RPF personnel surrounded and arrested Balamurugan. The police have recovered the stolen gold jewelry from him. The elderly woman Kumari said she was happy that her stolen jewelry was recovered within just a week.
