As many as 124 articles kept as case properties have gone missing from the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II in Ernakulam, Kochi, in what the news agency IANS described as a serious security lapse. A Rado wristwatch is among the items reported stolen.

Source: IANS via Nation Press

Case properties are items seized by police during criminal investigations and produced before the court as evidence. The missing articles were under the custody of the magistrate court and relate to cases registered and handled between 2016 and 2026, a period of about ten years.

124case properties reported missing
2016–2026period of the cases the properties relate to
1Rado wristwatch among the identified items

The theft came to light after the articles kept in the court's custody could not be located. Police registered a case following a complaint lodged by the Junior Superintendent of the court and have begun an investigation, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via Hi India

The immediate task before investigators is to establish when the articles went missing and how they were removed from the court's custody — whether in a single instance or over an extended period. Police are expected to examine the records and custodial logs relating to the missing articles and the circumstances under which they were kept.

Further details, including the exact nature and total value of all the missing articles, are awaited. Because the properties span a ten-year window, investigators say pinpointing when and how each item disappeared will be a complex exercise.