12 December,2010 01:15 AM IST | | Akela
Paresh Rawat, a gold dealer's shop help for five years, runs away with gold bars worth Rs 5 crore when the owner steps out to buy paan
A Zaveri Bazaar gold dealer was robbed of 23 kg of gold bars worth Rs 5 crore last Tuesday when he stepped out of his shop to buy a paan. Paresh Rawat, his 'trusted' employee since five years, ran away with the bars in the few minutes that 58 year-old Nathalal Brijlal Gandhi, owner of Dev Kripa Jewellery, took to visit a paanwalla nearby.
All that glitters: Twenty three kg of gold bars was stolen from a Zaveri
Bazaar gold dealer. Representational pic
The strange detail though is that Rawat was the one who had brought the consignment of bars from New Delhi that very morning.
Rawat had left for New Delhi on December 5 and returned with the bars on December 7. On reaching the shop, Gandhi asked Rawat to deliver the gold to a client at Zaveri Bazaar.
Gandhi asked Rawat to wait, since he wished to buy a paan and accompany Rawat to the client.
When Gandhi returned, he found Rawat gone. Not suspecting that Rawat had run away with the gold bars, Gandhi let the incident pass. After hearing no news from Rawat for two days, Gandhi contacted the police.
"We have registered an FIR against Rawat and hope to catch him in a few days," said Nitin Shinde, investigation officer, LT Marg police station.
The police team tried tracking Rawat's mobile phone to find his location, but his phone was switched off. The police visited his Navi Mumbai residence and the house in Pune where his mother lives, but Rawat wasn't found at either locations.
