Staff Reporter :

 

In a major breakthrough, Gorakhpur police have arrested the accused involved in theft at residence of his landlady and retrieved stolen cash of Rs 61,000 and jewellery amounting to Rs 41 lakh from him. the arrested has been identified as Nikhil Sethiya (23), son of Shankar Sethiya, resident of Kotwara Para, Sona Village, District Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh. Additional SP (Zone-II), Pallavi Shukla, while addressing a press conference on Friday, informed that on October 21, 2025, Laxmi Sharma (77), resident of Indira School area, Gorakhpur and Director of Indira High School, lodged a complaint that she went for sleep at 10 PM on October 19.

 

The next morning, the school peon informed her that the office lock was open. Upon inspection, she found the office ransacked and valuables missing including gold bangles, necklaces, rings, earrings, anklets, silver ornaments, cash, cards, and other belongings. During the investigation, CCTV footage and technical evidence led police to identify the accused as Nikhil Seth, a former tenant of the complainant who had vacated the house three months earlier and moved near Khalsa College. Upon learning that he had returned to his native place in Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh, a police team was dispatched there.

 

With the assistance of Kondagaon Police, the team apprehended Nikhil Sethiya. During interrogation, he confessed to committing the theft and revealed that the stolen valuables were hidden at his grandmother’s house in village Kemla. Acting on his information, the police recovered the stolen property gold ornaments weighing 300 grams, silver items weighing 715 grams and Rs 61,000 in cash.

 

The successful arrest and recovery operation was carried out under the guidance of Additional SP Zone-2 Pallavi Shukla and CSP Gorakhpur MD Nagotiya. The thief was arrested with active working of police team comprised of SI, Chandrabhan Singh, ASI Ravindra Tiwari, Constables Dharmendra Kumar, Balamukund, Bhagwan, Ashish Gaur and from Kondagaon Crime Branch, Head Constables Ajay Kumar Baghel, Pannalal Dehari, Constables Ajay Devangan and Parmeshwar Sahu.