Vijayanagar police are groping in the dark after a gang of three men allegedly barged into a jewellery store and took jewels worth Rs. 18 lakh. They also took the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) attached to the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera network in the store.
The incident occurred between 7.15 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. on Friday at My Kalyan, a jewellery store opposite Vijayanagar TTMC. The complainant, Venugopal, was in the shop along with another employee. Venugopal alleged that one of the men entered the shop in the garb of a customer and asked for a gold chain. “A little later, the others barged in wielding knives. They threatened to kill me if I resisted. They tied up my hands and locked me up in an adjacent room. It was an hour before I managed to free myself and inform the store owner,” he said.
The store owner claimed that a tray full of gold chains and other gold jewellery, worth about Rs. 18 lakh, were stolen. The City Police Commissioner had earlier issued a circular making it mandatory for jewellery stores to have an armed security guard. This store owner had failed to comply with the order.
Vijayanagar police have not ruled out the involvement of an insider and are questioning employees. “Though the store is close to our police station, we were informed one-and-an-half hour after the incident. And nobody on the street seems to have noticed the robbery,” an official said.
Police are analysing CCTV footage from nearby locations to track down the culprits.
This is the second incident where robbers have taken the DVR. In March 2013, a gang of robbers struck at Rishabh Jewellers in Rajajinagar.
