Jewel thief says he was ‘exposing inequality’

Jewel thief says he was ‘exposing inequality’

Mahesh Buddi TNN 

Hyderabad: The man who cleaned out a jewellery showroom and decamped with gold and gems worth Rs 6 crore last week walked into a TV studio and turned himself in on Monday. 
    G Kiran Kumar, a 23-year-old, said he wanted to become a pilot and was eager to send a message on growing social inequality and corruption in India. Kumar said he stole the jewels to pay for his training and for a surgery on his polio-stricken cousin. 
    “I am fed up with the way the system is functioning. Politicians are thieves who loot us for five years and I became a thief just for a night to show the world the growing inequality,” Kumar, who is an intermediate pass, said. 
    Kumar walked into the TV studio on Monday and told the receptionist that he was the thief behind the heist. 
    “If given a chance, I can serve society better than any politician,” said Kumar, who has four brothers and a widowed mother to feed from the paltry money he earned working as a mason. “If you’re poor, no one cares about you. No one gave a damn about what I wanted to do in life,” said Kumar, underscoring how in India, the rich-poor divide has widened to an all-time high in urban areas, according to National Sample Survey findings. 
    “My cousin Anand needs money for a surgery. We tried to get help, but no one cared,” he told cops. Ten special teams of Hyderabad police were searching for professional offenders across the country, and were at a loss for words when asked about how two rookies pulled off a heist in a high security area close to the CM’s camp office. 
    Kumar took the police to his house in suburban Hyderabad and showed them the booty, neatly packed in a travelling bag.