AHMEDABAD: A theft of 206 tolas of gold jewellery worth Rs 2.67 crore from the Singanpore branch of Safe House in Surat has exposed what police suspect was an insider conspiracy involving the branch manager, his two sons and an expert locker breaker.
The alleged theft has triggered panic among thousands of locker holders across the city, raising serious concerns over the safety of privately operated safe vaults.
The shockwaves quickly spread beyond the Singanpore branch. As reports of the alleged theft went viral, anxious customers rushed to Safe House branches in Varachha to verify whether their jewellery, cash and other valuables remained secure.
Long queues formed outside the vaults, customers struggled to access their lockers, and the situation became so tense that police had to intervene to maintain law and order.
Safe House operates three branches in Surat with more than 2,500 lockers, making the alleged breach one of the most significant private locker fraud cases reported in the city in recent years.
Police investigations have revealed that the alleged theft was not an isolated incident but a meticulously planned criminal conspiracy allegedly orchestrated from within the organisation.
According to investigators, Safe House manager Mahesh, his sons Harsh and Harikrishna, along with an expert locker breaker identified as Manilal, allegedly conspired to systematically target customers' lockers.
Police suspect the accused accessed lockers at different times in the absence of customers, removed gold ornaments without leaving immediate traces, and allegedly planned to dispose of the jewellery in the market for financial gain.
"The investigation indicates that this was not a sudden theft but a carefully planned conspiracy. The accused allegedly accessed lockers without customers' knowledge, removed valuables over a period of time and attempted to conceal the crime," police officials said.
The case came to light after complainant Ramesh Vaghani, a resident of Surat, discovered that most of his family's jewellery had vanished from their locker.
According to the police complaint, Vaghani had rented locker number B/202 in the name of his wife, Hirenben, at the Singanpore branch in 2020 by paying a monthly rent of Rs 1,700. On May 8, 2026, his relatives had visited the locker and confirmed that all the jewellery was intact.
However, nearly two months later, when the family returned to retrieve ornaments for a family function, they found that only one mangalsutra, two bracelets and three rings remained inside, while 63 tolas of gold jewellery had allegedly disappeared.
Alarmed by the discovery, Vaghani and his family visited the Singanpore branch on July 14 and demanded access to the CCTV footage.
According to the complaint, the CCTV footage was examined for several hours before the process took a dramatic turn. Harsh, who was present at the counter, allegedly became visibly nervous and abruptly interrupted the verification process.
The complainant alleged that Harsh remarked, "Everything has become Hot. I have taken too much risk. Everything will explode."
He then refused to continue showing the CCTV footage and claimed that the surveillance data had been deleted from the hard disk. The response immediately heightened the family's suspicion, prompting them to approach the Singanpore-Dabholi Police Station.
As news of the alleged conspiracy spread across Surat through social media and television reports, fear gripped customers of Safe House's other branches. Hundreds of locker holders rushed to the Varachha branches to inspect their lockers and remove their valuables.
The panic soon escalated into chaos as several customers complained of technical difficulties while attempting to open their lockers. Many alleged they received no satisfactory explanation from branch officials, leading to heated arguments and confusion inside the premises.
Police personnel were eventually deployed to regulate the crowd and prevent any law and order situation, while several customers chose to immediately withdraw their jewellery and cash from the lockers.
Based on Vaghani's complaint, Police Sub Inspector D.B. Kamaliya of the Singanpore-Dabholi Police Station registered an FIR, while further investigation has been handed over to Police Inspector P.M. Chaudhary.
Police have booked the accused under Sections 316(2), 316(5) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, relating to criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
The Singanpore police have detained Mahesh, Harsh and Harikrishna, while the investigation is continuing to determine whether more lockers were compromised, recover the stolen jewellery, and establish the full scale of the alleged fraud.