DELHI - An Indian man has been put on a special diet of bananas and special liquids by police to help him expel a stolen gold necklace.

Anil Jadhav, 30, was arrested on Monday after members of the public accused him of snatching the 63,000 rupee (S$1,316) necklace from a 52-year-old woman in Mumbai's Sion area.

According to the BBC, an initial body search by police failed to retrieve the necklace which weighed 25g.

But it was found lodged in his food pipe during X-ray scans of Mr Jadhav's body.

Police then put him on the special diet of bananas and liquids.

"We searched him thoroughly in the police station but did not find the necklace. Then some people who had caught him told us that they had seen him swallowing something," police official Rahul Pawar was quoted telling the BBC.

Mr Jadhav has defecated it after he was fed special liquids and bananas, and had four enemas administered to him by doctors. The necklace has since been returned to its owner.

However, owner Rajashree Mayeker told Midday newspaper correspondent Saurabh Vaktania that she has refused to wear it and was having it melted to re-make it.

The special diet is not the first time that the method is being used by Indian police on a robber.

In 2007, police forced a thief to gobble down 40 bananas in a few hours, in order to pass out a gold necklace that he had snatched and swallowed. The necklace was then washed and returned to the woman who owned it.

Last year, a man in Mumbai was also fed 36 bananas so that police could retrieve stolen property.