Gold worth Rs 3 crore stolen in daring heist at jewellery shop in Bengaluru

Thieves bored through the sidewall of a jewellery store in southern Bengaluru and made off with about Rs 3 crore worth of gold. They did not touch a single silver article and had snapped electric wires to make the CCTV cameras useless.

The daring heist took place at Priyadarshini Jewellers, located at 14th Cross, JP Nagar 1st Phase, on Sunday night.

Both the store owner and the police believe it was the handiwork of two men who had rented a second-floor house in an adjacent building just about a month ago.

The jewellery store is located on the ground floor of a three-storey building. The first and second floors are used as family guesthouses and have separate entrances.

K Rajudevadiga 59, who has been running the store for the past 12 years, told the police he kept all the gold jewellery in a locker at around 7 pm on Saturday, closed for the day and went home to Shakambari Nagar. He also made sure the main door, made of wrought iron, was properly locked.

When he came back around 10 am the next day and opened the shop, he had the shock of his life: furniture and other valuables were strewn on the ground, and the jewellery locker was broken with a gas cutter.

But Rajudevadiga couldn’t figure out how the thieves had entered the shop. He immediately ran upstairs. What he discovered left him numb with disbelief: on the second floor, there was a circular hole, about two feet in diameter, on the left sidewall that’s shared with the adjoining building.

It was evident the thieves had come in via the hole and climbed down the staircase to reach the lower floors. The doors of the ground and first floors were also broken with the gas cutter.

Speaking to DH, Rajudevadiga said that while he didn’t know much about the tenants of the adjoining building, he said they were the “most likely” culprits. “I cannot reveal more until the police catch them,” he added. He said the stolen jewellery weighed five to six kg, worth up to Rs 3 crore.

‘Very well-executed’

A senior police officer said the heist was carried out by at least five people, two of whom had rented the house in the adjacent building a month ago by submitting a Delhi address proof. “We suspect they had rented the room with the sole intention of burgling the shop. They closely watched the shopkeeper and staff. They drilled the hole from their room,” he said. “It was a very well-executed heist.”

Another senior police officer said the burglars had snapped the electric wires to cut the power supply to the building, making the CCTV cameras installed in the building useless. There was no security guard in the building. The gang did not touch any of the silver items, he added.

Watch latest videos by DH here: