VELLORE: In yet another daring act, jewel thieves broke into a jewellery shop in the busy Main Bazar area on Friday night and decamped with an estimated 5 kg of gold jewels valued to be around Rs 1.25 crore! While the locals are still unable to recover from the shocking incident that took place on Wednesday evening this week when a couple of thieves, riding on a motorcycle had snatched away a bag containing around 1.5 kg of gold, valued to be around Rs 45 lakh, from a sales person who was on his way to deliver the gold ornaments on order to a jewellery shop on the other part of the city in the Officers Line, the Saturday’s shop-break has added pressure not only on the clueless police, but also has exposed the weak security system.When the owners opened the shop on Saturday morning, they were shocked to find the entire jewels from the 60 display trays were missing. The jewels (around 3 kg) in the locker however remained untouched. And the thieves had not touched any of the silver items. The back door leading to the staircase in the first floor was broken and a small manhole made on one walls indicated that the intruders must have gained entry into the shop through this way.The intruders have also snapped the wires of surveillance camera inside the shop, thus leaving no possible clues on their mission. Going by the size of the manhole found on the wall in the first floor, one may assume that the intruders could have used small boys who could sneak into the shop to open the staircase doors. Based on a complaint, the Vellore north police rushed to the spot along with forensic experts and sniffer dog Pinky. Investigations are on in this regard. Incidentally a similar attempt has been made at a shop nearby a couple of months back, when the intruders made a manhole but did not gain entry into the shop. Nothing was stolen and no complaint was also made to the police in this regard.V S Ramesh Kumar, president of the Vellore District Jewellers and Pawn brokers Association, who also owns a shop just opposite to the shop which was looted on Saturday, told Express that the robbery had thrown a big challenge to the jewellers of Vellore on the security issue. Describing the incident as one of the biggest loots in the history of the city, he said that the police security must be tightened. He also favoured individual insurance cover for all the shops against thefts.The Main Bazar incidentally houses around 200 jewel shops, small and big, doing business worth several crores of rupees every day. While it was expected that installation of surveillance cameras insides the shops could help prevent thefts, the Saturday’s incident has also disproved this theory. In order to infuse a sense of confidence among people, police must come up with alternative plans.
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