Truth revealed after 33 years; jewellery owner gets back gold taken away from his shop

THODUPUZHA: The court returned the 10-gram gold taken away by the police 33 years ago to the owner of the jewellery shop. Police had taken away the gold by alleging that it was the mainour stolen by a thief. Mathew Kandirikkal, the owner of Thodupuzha Kandirikkal Jewelers, got back the gold after the court acquitted the accused in the theft case.

The incident took place in October 1989. One day, the Kanjar police arrived at Mathew's jewellery shop with the accused arrested in connection with the theft of a housewife's necklace at Muttam. The accused had told the police that he had sold the necklace of 10 grams to Mathew. Although Mathew swore that he did not buy stolen gold, the police did not believe him. He was asked either to hand over the 10 grams of gold or to get in the jeep with the accused and go to the station. Eventually, he melted a necklace and handed over the gold to the police. The necklace, which weighed 9.8 grams, had the seal and number of the jewellery affixed to it.

Matthew later filed a complaint to prove his innocence. He also appeared in court once. However, he forgot about it after some time. Six months ago, he got a call from Kanjar station asking him to collect the gold from the Thodupuzha First Class Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. Thus, Mathew received the gold on May 7. The woman, who was the plaintiff in the case, died some years ago. Although her relatives made claim for the gold, they were not able to prove it in court. Mathew had produced documents showing that he had purchased the gold.