The Kollur police in Udupi district have arrested a person on the charge of stealing ornaments from the body of a 46-year-old Kerala woman who died in a road accident in Kollur on May 17.

The police identified the accused as Hemanth, 40, a resident of Kollur village in Byndoor taluk of Udupi district. The accused is a Group D employee at Kundapur Government Hospital. The police said he stole the ornaments while keeping the body in the mortuary’s cold storage on the day of the accident.

The police recovered a gold ring worth ₹57,000, a gold bangle worth ₹50,000, and a necklace worth ₹1 lakh from the accused.

In a complaint registered on May 23, Sri Kumar said his relative Jyoti Venugopal, 46, of Kerala, died in a road accident in Dali near Kollur. Her body was sent to Kundapur Government Hospital. When they received her body after postmortem on May 18, her gold chain, gold ring and gold bangle were missing.

Suspecting the theft occurred while the body was being taken in the ambulance or while body was kept in the cold storage, Mr. Kumar asked the police to trace the accused.

Going through the CCTV images of the accident spot, photos of the spot and technical evidence, a team led by Kollur Police Sub Inspector Vinay M Korlahalli arrested Hemanth within 24 hours of registration of the complaint on May 24.

He is accused of offence under Section 303(2) (theft) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Hemanth was produced before the jurisdictional magistrate, who remanded him in 15 days of judicial custody, the police said.