Couple turns thieves ‘for lifestyle, casino gambling’

MARGAON: Husband’s craze for a flashy lifestyle and the wife’s obsession with gambling at casinos may have led the Dias couple, accused of the May theft at Benaulim church, onto the path of robbery, police sources surmise.
While Leena Dias, 39, is in judicial custody, Carlos Dias, 39, is currently cooling his heels in Colva police custody. Police investigations into the case have revealed that Carlos held several jobs in the past, including that of a waiter, and his last occupation was that of a sales representative for holiday resorts in the coastal belt.
His fluency in several foreign languages helped him to interact with tourists at Colva beach, said sources. Leena, on the other hand, was a homemaker with a penchant for gambling at casinos. In her younger days, however, she was a stunt performer with a circus, said police sources. She has a case of theft registered against her in 2008 in Panaji, where she is accused of robbing cash from a casino in the capital city. Since she failed to appear in court, where the case has been registered, she has been declared an absconder, police sources said.
While Carlos is a resident of ldona, Leena hails from Chinchinim. To evade the police, the couple would frequently change their place of residence and were found to have lived in Margao, Colva, Benaulim and Assolna for brief periods in the recent past, police sources said. They suspect the couple to have been involved in another case of theft booked at the Colva police and they do not rule out the couple’s involvement in more cases.
Police sources surmise that the couple resorted to thefts in order to fulfill the monetary requirement to live the lifestyle they sought. On May 13 a couple armed with a chopper and their faces covered, had gained entry into the Benaulim church office and after tying up the occupants, made off with cash, two laptops and three mobile phones. The case had remained unresolved until Leena, who was arrested by the Margao police in connection with another theft case, was identified as the female accused in the Benaulim church theft case and taken into custody by the Colva police last week. Carlos was arrested on Saturday.