4 cops ‘loot’ gold bars from Rajkot jeweller

PATNA: The alleged involvement of four policemen in loot of at least five kilograms of gold bars worth around Rs 1.35 crore from a Rajkot-based jeweller has set alarm bells ringing in the police headquarters here. The gold bars were looted from the jeweller, Ashish Bhaijani (36), at Pirmuhani under the Kadamkuan police station area here on July 13.

City SP (central) D Amarkesh said police arrested four persons, including a jewellery shop owner, on Friday on charges of hatching the conspiracy to loot gold bars from the Rajkot jeweller. “The arrested persons – Manoj Verma (owner of Shubham Jewellers at Bakerganj), Chandan Kumar, Shyam Babu and Mohammad Shehzad – revealed during interrogation that four policemen were involved in the loot,” the SP said, adding 400 grams of looted gold, Rs 2.75 lakh in cash and a motorcycle were seized from the possession of the arrested persons.

“The arrested persons have told police that Ved Nidhi alias Lali, who was earlier sent to police lines, had played a major role in the crime. Nidhi had been sent to jail in 2017 as well for his alleged involvement in a land grabbing case lodged with Pataliputra police station. He had also contested the elections of Patna Policemen’s Association in the past,” Amarkesh said, adding the policeman is on the run. The SP, however, refused to disclose the names of three other accused policemen, saying it would hamper investigations.

Amarkesh said it was Verma who hatched the conspiracy to loot gold bars from Bhaijani in association with Chandan, Shyam and Shehzad. “Shehzad convinced the four policemen to execute the plan,” the SP said. He added raids were on to arrest eight more persons, including the four policemen, in connection with the case.

Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj, however, said the exact quantity of gold bars looted from the Rajkot jeweller was yet to be ascertained.

According to a police source, Bhaijani was on a rickshaw when six persons, some of them in police uniform, intercepted him around 10.30pm on July 13. “The policemen took the jeweller to an unknown place after branding him a gold smuggler. There, they looted gold bars from him,” the source said, adding Bhaijani had lodged an FIR with Kadamkuan police station on the same night.