Foreign national linked to Rs 72 lakh diamond ring theft at Bengaluru’s Joyalukkas store: police

“We have identified the suspect who has been seen in CCTV footage of the theft. He is part of a gang involved in jewellery thefts. They have managed to leave the country. Efforts are on to track them,” said a senior Bengaluru police officer.

The gang behind the crime is reported to be from an East European country.

An internal probe by the jewellery showroom staff using CCTV footage last month revealed that a bearded, elderly man who visited the store in the guise of a customer on February 18 had shown interest in the now missing solitaire diamond ring but had not bought it. The jewellery store staff also found that a fake diamond ring had been swapped for the real ring by the thief.

During their internal probe, the Joyalukkas store staff also found that the man identified as the suspect had visited two other company showrooms in East Bengaluru wearing different clothes on February 17 and 18. They found he had not been able to carry out any crime since the stores did not have the specific solitaire diamond ring that the suspect wanted.

According to the police complaint filed in central Bengaluru by the M G Road Joyalukkas store manager, the suspect visited the showroom on the evening of February 18 at around 6 pm. A store employee Jimmy Roy was delegated to attend to the customer who was seeking to buy a solitaire diamond ring.

When the store employee was showing the suspect different designs the suspect allegedly was not satisfied and sought more designs. When the store employee reportedly turned away to bring out more designs, the swap of the solitaire diamond ring with a fake is alleged to have occurred, according to the police complaint by the showroom manager.

“After a while, the store employee sought the identification details of the customer like his Aadhaar and PAN card. At this time the individual left the store with the original diamond ring,” said the complaint filed by the Joyalukkas showroom manager.

Foreign gangs have been involved in crimes in Bengaluru in the past too. In 2018, a five-member gang from Colombia in South America carried out a series of burglaries at posh homes in South Bengaluru between June and July. When members of the gang were arrested by the Bengaluru police, some were found to be involved in robberies in 2010 and 2016 as well.

After the 2010 jewellery heist at the Hotel Pride in central Bengaluru, on the sidelines of a jewellery exhibition, four South Americans, including three Colombians, were arrested in Goa by the Bengaluru police soon after the crime.