24 December,2010 06:51 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Jeweller robbed customers of neighbouring jewellery stores with 2 accomplices to reuse gold; police arrest the duo, jeweller absconding
Auric Goldfinger, the villain in James Bond movie Goldfinger, was obsessed with gold. Similar seems to be the case with a reputed jeweller in Kandivli.
The 45-year-old jeweller would observe buyers purchasing jewellery from shops located opposite his shop. He would then send two men to those shops while the customers were busy shopping for jewellery and gems.
These men would follow the customers after they came out of the store with their purchases and filch the valuables, which they would return to the jeweller behind the plan. The jeweller then pocketed the valuables.
"Such robberies were happening in Kandivli area since 2008. We received a tip-off from our sources that a jeweller was involved.
Thus we kept a close watch on the jewellers in the area and arrested his accomplices in crime," said Ram Bandekar from Charkop police station.
The officials have arrested the two accomplices of the jeweller who owns two jewellery shops by the name of Mahalaxmi Jewellers in Kandivli and Mira Road respectively.
The police are also on a lookout for the jeweller who is now in hiding.
For his new shop
According to police officials, the jeweller owns the shops in partnership with his brother and was trying to make enough money to start his own shop.
In the statements given to the police, the accused Vishal Bapu Kamble and Shrinivas said that they would rob the customers at a convenient location after they had finished buying jewellery from other shops.
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After the robbery, they would then take the steal to the jeweller.
He used to then melt the jewellery to make new designs out of gold and then sell them in his own shop.
Kamble and Shrinivas, residents of Vakola and Bandra, respectively, revealed that they were paid a few thousand rupees for the robbery.
Easy money
They said that they carried out the plans of the jeweller as they were unable to afford even a one-room shelter for themselves in the city and used the offer as an opportunity to earn easy money.
The residents of Malvani, Thane and Vashi have also been victims of these robbers.
Con Job
1) Jeweller made his two accomplices Vishal Bapu Kamble and Shrinivas keep a watch on customers buying ornaments in jewellery stores located opposite his shop
2) After the customers moved out of the shop with their jewellery, Kamble and Shrinivas would rob all the jewels from the customers at a secluded spot
3) They would then take the ornaments to the jeweller who paid a few thousand rupees to the two. He then melted the ornaments to make new designs out of the gold and sold them at his shop
Rs 70 lakh
Worth of jewellery robbed by the accused so far
