KAJANG: The “slickest thief in the country”, who made the news after he stole RM600,000 from a bank over two years ago armed with just a piece of paper, is believed to have struck again. This time, he is said to have posed as a maintenance technician to steal from the Seremban City Council (MBS).
Although Kartik Rajandran was caught by police and charged with several counts of theft and trespassing in October 2017, luck appeared to be on his side.
After being tried in court, the 30-year-old escaped punishment and was absolved of all the charges due to insufficient evidence.
About three weeks ago, he is believed to have gone on a crime spree again, striking at the MBS office in Wisma MBS on Persiaran Forest Heights. Posing as a contractor seeking a building permit, he managed to gain entry to the office accessible to only MBS staff.
Sources told theSun that as he snooped around, the suspect sneaked into a room where the day’s takings from fees and taxes were kept and allegedly pocketed RM25,000 when staff were busy minding their work.
It was too late when the theft was discovered by staff as the smooth-talking conman had fled.
Over the next few days, he is said to have struck at least four business premises in Kajang.
While impersonating a Tenaga Nasional technician on Jan 22, he ordered staff of an office to step out of the premises “for safety reasons while he carried out an inspection on the wiring and meter” of the place.
After the unsuspecting staff walked out, he went in, searched the premises and bundled all the cash and valuables he could find.
On the same day, Kajang police issued an image of the man captured by a close-circuit camera and a statement cautioning the public to be wary of the suspect.
Early last week, Seremban police managed to identify the suspect and launched a hunt for him. Sources said police had gone to his house in Karak, Bentong to look for him but to no avail.
It is learnt that the suspect’s mother managed to contact him and advised him to give himself up. Heeding his mother’s orders, the suspect surrendered to Seremban police, accompanied by his lawyer.
On Friday, after the probe on the MBS theft was completed, he was handed to Kajang police for investigations on cases in the district.
Kajang police chief ACP Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yussof told theSun yesterday that the suspect was being held under a remand order for investigations over four cases he is allegedly responsible for.
“We have received four police reports made by victims. We urge others who might have fallen victim to the suspect to come forward and lodge police reports or contact Kajang police at the soonest,“ he said.
On Sept 8, 2017, in a case probably only possibly in Hollywood movies, the suspect, dubbed “the slickest thief of all time in Malaysia”, pulled off a heist at a foreign bank in Damansara simply with his smooth-talk.
He showed bank staff a piece of paper that purportedly authorised him to inspect the fire extinguishers at its premises and identified himself as a technician.
The staff fell for the ruse and went about their work while the man found his way into the bank’s cash vault.
He bagged RM600,000 into a knapsack and left the place after telling a security guard that he would return after fetching a colleague to assist him.
When the theft was discovered by bank staff, the suspect, who came in slippers wearing a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts, was long gone.
Almost a month later, the man, who was described by his victims and even police investigators as a calm, composed, polite and charismatic person, was arrested at the home of his parents-in-law in Malacca.
Police recovered less than RM80,000 of the stolen loot and the suspect refused to reveal the whereabouts of the remaining cash.
The father of two, who dropped out of school at the age of 12 and is married to a local university graduate, had also pulled off similar thefts at more than 20 other business premises, including a law firm and a construction company prior to the bank heist.
theSun front-paged the exclusive story on Sept 19, 2017, drawing huge readership from both local and international readers.
