Burglars struck at a jewellery showroom on Main Bazaar in Vellore town on Friday and made away with about two-and-a-half kilograms of gold jewels worth around Rs 65 lakh.
Rajesh Kanna, owner of Naga Jewel Palace, said he was shocked to see the jewels kept in his office missing and the metal detector damaged when he checked the surveillance footage on his mobile phone. Fortunately, new ornaments kept in a safety locker remained intact.
After preliminary inquiry, police said the intruders gained entry into the showroom by breaking open the ventilator on the second floor. After reaching the first floor, they moved the surveillance cameras so that they faced the wall. “The burglars stole the jewels weighing about 2.5 to 3 kg worth Rs 65 lakh. They also damaged the metal detector, worth Rs12 lakh, mistaking it to be the safety locker,” said a police officer.
The officer added that the modus operandi was similar to that of the gang which looted 4.5 kg of golden ornaments from V S Nataraja Chettiar Jewellery on August 19, 2011. A gang of three to four had then drilled a hole into the jewellery shop wall and decamped with jewels worth about Rs1.50 crore.
Police said gold ornaments of about 120 sovereigns were stolen from the Naga Jewel Palace. “We are going through the footage from the surveillance cameras. The miscreants reached the first floor where all the jewels were kept around 1.06 am on Friday. After they climbed down through the open space in the under-construction elevator area, the miscreants turned the cameras towards the wall,” said a police officer.
Experts from the forensic unit lifted fingerprints from the shop to assist the probe team. They also collected details of people who had checked in and checked out of lodges in the locality.
Previously, a gun-wielding gang had attempted to burgle the showroom. The gang had then shot at Srinivasan and a motorist when they tried to escape. Police are yet to crack the case.