Gold heists worth Rs 104 crore orchestrated by jailed jewel thief in Bihar

Subodh Singh, resident of Chistipur village in Bihar’s Nalanda district, has been operating his gang of 70 from inside the jail for the past five years. The gang has stolen at least 180 kg of gold from six Hindi heartland states.

A gang of 70 people, operating since 2018, has managed to steal at least 180 kg of gold amounting to Rs 104 crore across five Hindi heartland states in five years. If that in itself isn't noteworthy, it's worth mentioning that this gang is reportedly being run by an imprisoned jewel thief.

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, police have identified the mastermind as Subodh Kumar Sing alias Dilip Singh. Singh was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) in January 2018 with 15 kg of gold — the takings from a jewellery store heist in the Rupaspur police station area in the Patna district. Subsequently, Singh was sent to Beur central jail, where he remains to this day under-trail.

A resident of the Chistipur village in Bihar’s Nalanda district, Singh has been operating heists from inside the jail for the past five years, during which time his gang has hit at least six states—West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

How did police identify the gang?

While the gang had largely been operating unnoticed, its existence came to light following a routine investigation into a Reliance Jewellery store robbery in November last year that revealed Singh's ties with the gang.

The robbers, some of whom were nabbed following the Dehradun robbery, subsequently went on to reveal to police the intricate networks and water-tight methods used by the gang to remain under the radar.

Singh’s modus operandi revolves around the use of minimum violence, and specialisation. Inspector Sandeep Kumar Singh, who questioned the mastermind jewel thief when he was arrested in 2018, told HT, "For each robbery, there are three teams. The first commits the crime, the second transports the loot, and the third sells gold and other jewellery in Nepal and other neighbouring countries."

The gang members stay in touch with Singh via Telegram to avoid tracing of locations. Specific tasks are assigned to young people Singh recruits from Bihar and West Bengal jail. Singh pays them an advance of Rs 5-10 lakh from inside the jail, cops told HT.

Most of the loot is sold in Nepal for 70 per cent of the actual cost of gold and other jewellery. Singh gets his part of the money through hawala while the rest is distributed among gang members involved in the operation.

Further, Singh makes sure that none of the gang members know each other prior to a robbery and know nothing more than the specific task assigned to them.

For instance, for the Dehradun heist in November, the control room was set up in Bihar's Vaishali district—"From there, the robbers would be allotted tasks, information related to firearms, cash, vehicles, clothes, SIM cards, would be shared with them. The robbers on the ground during the Dehradun robbery were in constant contact with those at the operations centre," Dehradun senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ajai Singh told HT.

The robbery was carried out by five people, namely, main accused Prince Kumar, along with Abhishek Kumar, Vikram Kumar Kushwaha, Rahul Kumar, and Avinash Kumar.

On the morning of November 9, Prince, Abhishek, Rahul and Avinash entered the Reliance Jewellery store and held the staff hostage at gunpoint, directing them to fill their bags with jewellery while Vikram Kumar waited for them in a getaway car. The gang left with jewellery worth Rs 14 crore, which was then sold in Nepal.

Police officials said that the gang was aware of the stock arriving for sale on Dhanteras (a day when it is considered auspicious to buy gold) due to multiple recces of the store. Dehradun police found that a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga car used in the crime was stolen from Agra as long back as June. Other gang members used vehicles bought online on the basis of fake identification cards.

Cops also told the publication that Singh's work has thus far not been hindered by arrests—by the time the accused in a robbery are arrested, the stolen gold is already sold in Nepal and the proceeds are sent to Singh, who then moves on to planning his next heist.

"The gang hardly fails. Only once in Yamunanagar, Haryana in September 2022, was one of the five robbers caught during the attempt," SSP Singh added.

What is Singh accused of?

Speaking to HT, Bihar’s additional director general of police (operations), Sushil Manasingh Khopde said that Singh faces six cases in the state, including those under the Arms Act and for other crimes such as murder, forgery and attempt to murder. He also faces other cases related to robbery of gold in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

“As per data available in our office, six cases were registered against him in West Bengal, four in Rajasthan, three each in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in connection with loot of around 181 kg gold,” he said.

A senior police officer from Bihar also told HT that nobody dares to cheat Singh—"It is suspected that he got his old accomplice Manish Kumar Telia alias Netaji murdered in Vaishali jail on January 3, 2020," he said. The officer added that Singh's involvement in the murder of another associate, Yusuf Kaushal, alias Hani Raj, inside the Vaishali town police station on November 11, 2023 is being investigated.

What is to be done?

Since Singh's activities have come to light, the city administration has written to the Bihar prison department, requesting that Singh be transferred to the Bhagalpur jail, where his activities can be more closely monitored.

Singh gets interrogated regularly by different states' police in connection with thefts.

In October 2020, the West Bengal CID interrogated him at Beur prison in connection with a gold jewellery robbery in Asansol.

In December 2022, the Madhya Pradesh police too questioned the jewel thief in connection with the theft of 16 kg gold worth Rs 8 crore from a Mannapuram Gold store in the Katni district after the arrest of six of his gang members.

In 2023, he was taken to Maharashtra for 10 days in connection with an investigation into a gold robbery in Nagpur.

Yet, despite the police's awareness about Singh's activities and their efforts to restrain the same, the imprisoned jewel thief's precision heists continue.