A jewelry showroom in south Delhi was robbed of over 30kg of gold and other jewelry, as well as Rs 5 lakh in cash, in a unique heist. The thieves entered through the terrace, crossed over from an adjacent building, and drilled a hole in the concrete wall of the strongroom. The alarm system had been disabled, and CCTV cameras were rendered non-functional. The police are investigating the incident and suspect a possible insider involvement. Over 20 teams comprising 200 cops have been deployed to crack the case.
NEW DELHI: This was a unique gold heist. The shutters of Umrao Singh jewellery showroom in south Delhi’s Bhogal remained intact and firmly in place. The outlet was shut on Sunday night after business and remained closed on Monday as usual. However, the owners, other traders and even the police were shocked on Tuesday morning to discover a massive break-in.
At first nothing seemed amiss, except for a few loose CCTV wires. But soon, a tell-tale hole – 1 foot by 1.5 feet – in the RCC concrete wall of the strongroom was spotted. The modus operandi was clear. The thieves, it seemed, entered the showroom through the terrace, after crossing over from an adjacent building, and looted more than 30kg of gold and other jewellery besides Rs 5 lakh in cash before making a clean getaway.
Around Rs 25 crore worth of gold and diamond jewellery has gone missing, according to the owner, Sanjiv Jain.
The alarm installed in the showroom did not go off as the system had been disabled. The shop had around six CCTV cameras but these too were rendered non-functional around midnight on Sunday, a preliminary probe has revealed.
The police were alerted about the incident through a PCR call around 10.55am by the shop owner, Sanjeev Jain. “The showroom was closed around 8pm on September 24 and remained closed the next day. Today, when the owners opened the shop around 10.30am, they found that the concrete wall of the strongroom of the shop had been breached,” said DCP (southeast) Rajesh Deo. The thieves appeared to have used portable gas cutters to drill the hole.
Footage retrieved from some CCTV cameras in the area has thrown up some clues. Sources said the man or men who entered the showroom through the hole must be thinly built. This has been communicated to informers.
When TOI visited the shop on Tuesday, it found that the thieves had drilled the hole in the wall near the staircase that went to the basement of the building, which has ground plus three floors. The showroom is located on the ground floor and the other floors are used as stores and for repair work. The strongroom, also located on the ground floor, has a heavy metallic gate and walls on three sides, one of which was breached.
Besides taking away the jewellery in the strongroom, they also stole the ornaments on display.
Store had no security guard.
Crime teams were called in and some preliminary evidence was collected. Over 20 teams, comprising 200 cops, have been deployed to crack the case. Police commissioner Sanjay Arora has also roped in the crime branch with instructions to solve the case at the earliest and restore the faith of the business community. The showroom has no guard and has to do with the market guard for security at night. During the day, there are six to seven workers in the shop.
The thieves, it seemed, came from an adjacent building, broke open the door of the terrace with tools and took the same route to flee.
Owner Jain claimed that he found the entire shop ransacked and full of dust when he opened the outlet on Tuesday morning. He confirmed that the thieves had fled with jewellery worth Rs 20–25 crore. Police said they had some leads and seemed hopeful of a breakthrough. Criminals involved in gold heists in the past have been rounded up. Technical surveillance was being used to develop intelligence and a possible insider role was also being probed. They suspect a staffer or a former employee to be involved, a senior cop said.
Article source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
