ROURKELA: A 63-year-old man accused of stealing a diamond studded gold bangle worth Rs 1.50 lakh from a jewellery store at Uditnagar was nabbed from a Mumbai-bound train at Rourkela railway station on Thursday night. The accused is Dinesh Kumar Thakkar, a resident of Raipur and a native of Gujarat.
Police said Thakkar was a habitual shoplifter. Posing as a customer, he allegedly stole a diamond studded gold bangle from the Carat Lane jewellery store at Uditnagar on June 30 night.
During investigation, police received a tip off from the Railway Protection Force at Kharagpur about Thakkar travelling in the general compartment of Howrah-Mumbai CSTM Mail to Raipur. Subsequently, Uditnagar police reached Rourkela railway station and apprehended the accused from the train.
Following his arrest, Thakkar confessed to the crime and revealed that he sold the stolen jewellery to an unknown person at Chor Bazaar of Kolkata for Rs 45,000. He was returning to Raipur from Kolkata when he was nabbed.
Police said further investigation revealed that on July 1, Thakkar committed a similar theft of a gold bangle from the Bluestone jewellery store in Esplanade Mall of Bhubaneswar. He also sold the bangle at Kolkata.
Police seized Rs 40,000 cash, a gold plated bangle, wrist watch and a mobile phone from the accused, who was produced in court and remanded in judicial custody on Friday.