CHENNAI: Two employees of a jewellery shop in Padi were arrested for allegedly stealing gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 85 lakh from the shop. They had replaced the original with fake jewellery and pawned the original ones.
According to Korattur police, N Muthukrishnan (29) was in charge of the gold studs section while K Vijayakumar (37) was in charge of the diamond jewellery section. The theft came to light in March during an internal stock audit and it was found that the duo had been stealing for nearly a year.
The store manager noticed discrepancies as 54 pairs of gold studs weighing 57 sovereigns were missing, and eight diamond items, including rings and necklaces, could not be accounted for. He questioned Muthukrishnan and Vijayakumar who allegedly confessed to the theft.
Based on a complaint, the police arrested the duo. It was found that Muthukrishnan had been losing money in online games and had stolen the jewels, police said.
Vijayakumar too had stolen the jewels to clear his debts. Both of them had pawned the jewels, and Muthukumar had recently retrieved some of the jewels.
The police have recovered gold studs weighing five sovereigns from the duo.