Four days after stealing four gold chains from a jewellery shop in Sarafa Bazar, a pregnant woman and her 17-year-old brother were arrested on Thursday.
The accused, Rajni Sharma, 24, of Fatehgarh Sahib, said she had committed the crime as her husband, a labourer, does not earn much. Since the woman was pregnant she was sent to judicial custody, while her minor brother was sent to a juvenile home.
The deputy commissioner of police (DCP, investigation) said that on October 9, the woman came to the shop with her five-yea-old son and minor brother and asked the jeweller to show her a collection of gold chains.
While the shop owner, Ritesh, was showing the gold chains to the woman, she stole four chains and hid them in her bag. The matter came to light the next day when Ritesh was checking the stock and found four gold chains missing. When he checked the CCTV footage, he caught the woman and alerted the police.
A case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code at the Division 4 police station. The the accused had visited two other shops, but failed to steal anything.