Man held for stealing from National Museum

New Delhi: The police have arrested a 53-year-old man from Gurgaon for allegedly stealing a replica of the ancient Olduvai Handaxe from the National Museum here.

Police said that Uday Ratra, currently unemployed, was arrested from his home late on Friday. The replica has been missing from the National Museum since June 24. 

Police said museum authorities initially tried to find the item on their own but unable to make any headway they approached them with a complaint yesterday. 

They also handed over CCTV footage from the premises to the police in which a person could be seen going out with the object. After studying the CCTV footage, the police managed to identify the accused and nabbed him from his house in Gurgaon and recovered the replica, police said. 

Ratra had earlier been arrested in 2016 for allegedly trying to enter a five-star hotel in Sarojini Nagar with a blade while the then US secretary of state John Kerry was staying there. 

He was also arrested for stealing imported liquor from a store the same year, police said. His father has earlier served the Coast Guard as an inspector general. An officer said that it is suspected that Ratra is a kleptomaniac.