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In a broad daylight heist, burglars drilled a hole into the wall of a jewellery shop in Warje and escaped with gold ornaments worth Rs 1.23 crore on Friday.
Anandkumar Verma (34), owner of the jewellery shop, has lodged an FIR at Warje police station. Preliminary investigation has found that the burglars had hatched an elaborate plan to commit the heist.
Police said Verma, a resident of Karve Nagar, runs the shop “Mauli Jewellers” located at Ganpati Matha on NDA Road in Warje. Mauli Jewellers has a common wall with an adjacent shop, where a bakery was operating previously, but was shut a few days ago.
Burglars took this adjacent shop on rent nearly a week ago saying they wanted to start Masala business at the spot. Then they started some furniture work at this rented shop.
Meanwhile, they kept a close watch on the movements at Mauli Jewellers. They realised that Verma was keeping the jewellery shop closed between 2.30 pm and 5 pm daily. And on Friday, his employee was on leave.
So taking advantage of the situation, the burglars planned the heist between 2.30 pm and 5 pm on Friday, after Verma closed the jewellery shop. Police said during this time, the burglars, pretending to do furniture work at the adjacent shop, drilled a big hole in the common wall and entered Mauli Jewellers. Then they escaped with gold ornaments worth Rs 1.23 crore and escaped from the spot.
Police checked videos captured by CCTV cameras nearby and got some clues about the burglars. Search teams have been formed to nab them.
Sub inspector N A Mundhe, the investigating officer, said: “For committing theft at the jewellery shop, the burglars had taken the adjacent shop on rent recently. They did not sign on any agreement paper while taking the shop on rent. Investigation is on.”
Police have booked the unidentified burglars under sections 454 and 380 of Indian Penal Code.
