With only a first name and a vague address, the Pydhonie police recently traced and arrested a jewellery store employee who had allegedly fled with his employer’s jewellery worth over ₹57 lakh.
The investigating team camped in the accused’s home town in West Bengal for four days, developing a rapport with the locals, which ultimately led to the arrest of the accused and his two accomplices.
Delivery gone wrong
According to the police, jeweller Kalyan Kar (37) had filed a complaint on May 1, alleging that his helper, whom he knew only as Kartik, left his shop the previous day with diamond-studded jewellery worth ₹57.60 lakh and never returned. Kartik was supposed to deliver the jewellery for polishing.
“Mr. Kar had not registered his helper’s details with us while employing him, and only had a first name and the name of a village in West Bengal. He had been employed through the reference of Mr Kar’s friend,” senior police inspector Avinash Kanade, Pydhonie police station, said.
The police first made inquiries with other helpers at the shop and the person who had recommended Kartik. Simultaneously, attempts were made to track his movements using cellular location mapping. However, the police failed to obtain any concrete clues about Kartik's whereabouts or movements.
Local network
Finally, a team of personnel left for Medinipur distict in West Bengal, where Kartik hails from, last week. “We started interacting with people from Kartik’s village and over the course of four days, developed some informants. A few of them provided us information about Kartik’s movements from the local grapevine and we verified it,” an officer who was part of the investigation said.
On May 24, the police picked up the 23-year-old, whose full name was found to be Kartik Payra, and his friend Zareshwar Maiti (26). The police learned that Mr. Payra, Mr. Maiti and a third accused, Pintu Bhuya (32), had hatched the plot together. Mr. Bhuya was arrested on Tuesday, and all three of them were brought to Mumbai on Wednesday.
Jewellery recovered
“We have recovered jewellery worth ₹49.22 lakh from the arrested accused and are in the process of recovering the rest of the valuables,” Mr. Kanade said.
The three have been charged with criminal breach of trust by a servant and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. On Thursday, they were produced in court, which remanded them in police custody till June 4, officials said.
