KOCHI: Miscreants broke into a jewellery shop at Eloor, in Kochi, and decamped with gold and silver ornaments worth around `1.5 crore in the early hours on Monday. The theft at Aiswarya Jewellers came to light on Monday morning when the nearby shop owners found broken a portion of the rear-end wall, said police.
The jewellery shop is functioning in the FACT Shopping Centre at Udyogamandal. The burglars entered after drilling the wall of a barbershop which sits adjacent to the jewellery shop. They stole the gold and silver after breaking open the locker using a gas cutter. The jewellery shop is owned by Vijayakumar P R, a resident of Muppathadam near Aluva.
As per the statement of Vijayakumar, 300 sovereigns of gold ornaments, 25kg of silver and a few diamond nose studs all worth around `1.5 crore were lost. “We are currently checking the CCTV footage from the surrounding areas,” said M Manoj, Inspector, Eloor police. The burglars snapped the wires of the shop’s CCTV cameras and power supply. However, the CCTV cameras inside the shop have been dysfunctional for a while.
On Saturday, Vijayakumar shut the shop for the day and returned home by 7pm. However, the barbershop — which shares the same shutter as the jewellery shop — was opened on Sunday. According to the police, the person who runs the barbershop closed by 7pm as usual. The police suspects that the theft occurred between 8pm on Sunday and 5am on Monday. “I came to know about the theft after receiving a phone call by a nearby shop owner around 7.30am on Monday,” said Vijayakumar. He has been running the jewellery shop at Eloor since 2000.
A police team led by K Laljy, ACP, Ernakulam, and the accompanying forensic squad has conducted a detailed inspection of the shop.