Delhi jewellery shop burglary: 2 held in Chhattisgarh, 18.5 kg ornaments recovered

PTI, Sep 29, 2023, 8:41 PM IST

New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh Police has arrested two people in connection with a Rs 20-crore burglary from a jewellery store in New Delhi earlier this week and recovered around 18.5 kg of gold and diamond ornaments from them, a senior official said on Friday.

A joint team of officials from the anti-crime and cyber unit and the Civil Line police station in Bilaspur district carried out the operation while probing a series of thefts in Bilaspur city, Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

Those arrested have been identified as Lokesh Srivas, who is allegedly involved in seven thefts in Bilaspur, and Shiva Chandravanshi, he said.

Acting on a tip-off about Srivas being present in Kawardha town of Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district, the team conducted a raid there on Wednesday and arrested Chandravanshi along with ornaments worth Rs 23 lakh, he said.

By that time, Srivas had managed to escape, the SP said.

The team then tracked down Srivas to a house under the Smritinagar police station jurisdiction in Durg district and recovered 18.5 kg of gold and diamond jewellery and Rs 12.5 lakh in cash from him, Singh said.

Investigation revealed that the jewellery was stolen from a store in New Delhi, he said, adding a team of the Delhi police has also arrived in Chhattisgarh and further investigation into the matter is underway.

Multiple teams were formed to work out the case and to effect the recovery. Hundreds of CCTV cameras were examined which revealed that one suspect carrying a backpack was found entering the adjoining building on Sunday night, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast Delhi) Rajesh Deo said.

During investigation, on the basis of inputs received from Chhattisgarh Police on Thursday, Srivas was identified as the prime suspect in the case. The photograph of the accused was collected which was matched with the suspect who was seen entering the adjoining building on Sunday and exiting on Monday evening, the DCP said.

As Srivas is a resident of Kabir Dham, Chhattisgarh, efforts were made to identify his mode of transport. Based on the technical surveillance, it was revealed that the accused had booked a bus from Delhi to Sagar. The bus left ISBT, Kashmere Gate at 9 pm on Monday, he said.

A team was immediately dispatched to ISBT, Kashmere Gate and the suspect was tracked to Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. A police team reached Raipur around 8.30 pm on Thursday. Officials of Raipur and Durg police joined the team, the DCP said.

In a parallel development, officers from Bilaspur police station had reached the hideout of Srivas at Kabir Dham on Thursday morning from where he managed to escape. However, his associate Shiva was arrested, Deo said.

Around 7 pm, Shiva took Bilaspur Police to the hideout of Srivas at Smiriti Nagar, Bhilai. In the meanwhile, Delhi Police officials also reached the spot around 11 pm. Around 5.45 am on Friday, Srivas showed up and he was chased by Delhi and Bilaspur Police and was arrested, the DCP said.

The search was made at the hideout and stolen jewellery was recovered. The seizure and arrest have been made by Bilaspur Police. Further investigation is in progress, the Delhi Police added.

Mahaveer Prasad Jain, the owner of the jewellery showroom in Delhi, told reporters, ”We are thankful to the police. We have seen the pictures of the recovered items and identified those as the ornaments have tags on them. We do not know the arrested people.” According to the Delhi Police, at least three people were involved in the burglary, which was one of the biggest in the national capital. The criminals broke into the shop, made a hole in a strong room and decamped with ornaments worth more than Rs 20 crore as well as Rs 5 lakh in cash earlier this week.

The shop, Umrao Singh Jewellers, in south Delhi’s Bhogal, had several CCTV cameras but they were damaged around Sunday midnight, the police said.

The owner closed the shop on Sunday around 8 pm and when he opened it on Tuesday around 10.30 am, he got to know about the incident. The shop remains closed on Monday.