Armed robbers take away ₹66L jewellery in Navi Mumbai

Two people armed with choppers barged into a jewellery store at Kamothe, tied up the owner and took away cash and jewellery worth Rs66 lakh on Thursday evening.

The entire operation took 40 minutes. The store owner said that one the accused had come to the store the previous day as a customer.

According to the police, the two entered Balaji Jewellers at Tirupati Complex at Sector 36, around 9.36 pm when the owner of the store Sanjay Jain, 36, was about to close it. Jain was alone at the store then.

“One of the accused entered the store carrying a bag. The second man entered after a few minutes and they suddenly closed the store from inside. They took out choppers and threatened Jain,” said Ashok Naik, senior police inspector of Kamothe police station.

“The duo tied Jain and sealed his mouth with sellotape. When Jain tried to raise an alarm, they attacked him with choppers. Jain sustained injuries on his hands,” he said.

“They removed the jewellery displayed in showcases. They took 2 kgs of gold jewellery worth around Rs65 lakh. They also took away Rs1 lakh cash,” Naik said.

Jain managed to press the alarm button which alerted the people of nearby areas. However, the accused had fled the spot by then.

There were CCTV cameras installed at the store. The two took away the DVR of the cameras.

“A CCTV footage from a nearby building shows the culprits leaving the store at 10.05 pm. They committed the crime in 40 minutes,” a crime branch official said.

While the first accused was around 30 to 32 years, the second one is around 28 to 30 years, the police said.

“Jain told us that one of the accused had come to store on Wednesday with another person. They had spent some time at the store and also purchased a gold ring worth Rs1,200. So it appears that they had come to do a recce,” Naik said.

Jain has been admitted to a hospital.

An FIR under sections 452, 342, 349 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against three accused.

“There were CCTV cameras installed in the nearby buildings. However, they had switched off most of lights by then. So we are not getting clear visuals of the culprits,” the crime branch official said.

“A CCTV footage shows the culprits walking off in two different directions. They might have kept their vehicle at a distance and walked to it with the looted jewellery,” he said.

Kamothe’s Sector 36 has lot of housing societies. Tirupati Complex, where the store is located, is also a housing society with shops on the ground floor.

The Kamothe police and the Navi Mumbai crime branch are investigating the case. Seven teams have been formed to search for the accused.