A jewellery showroom, located right in front of the central division Deputy Commissioner of Police office on Kasturba Road, was robbed early on Monday morning. Thieves, suspected to be a duo, have broken into Amrapali Fine Jewelers located near the Mahatma Gandhi Statue and have fled with silver articles and gold ornaments. The value of the stolen articles was yet to be ascertained, but the police suspect it to be worth several lakhs of rupees.
The jewellery store is located on the first floor of a building right opposite the office of DCP Ravikanthe Gowda. The office also houses the jurisdictional Cubbon Park police station and the office of the Cubbon Park sub-division ACP D. Devaraj.
It is a daring robbery as there is police presence in the area and at the DCP’s office throughout the day and is considered a high-security zone. The building where the store is located was built recently. In fact, the construction is still on at the second floor on top of the jewellery store and labourers have been working in shifts for the last 45 days. The accused have stolen ornaments displayed in the showcase. Nearly 7 kg of silver and polished gold ornaments have been stolen.
But the police claim that genuine gold articles and diamond jewellery remain intact. The CCTV footage available at the crime scene is not clear enough to identify the faces, but only the movement of two men, the Cubbon Park police said.
The shop that was open on Sunday was closed around 7.30 pm. The store manager had made double checked all the locks and the iron shutters before leaving. The CCTV footage reveals that the thieves have gained entry into the store around 1 am. They have come from the rear portion of the shop through an elevated parking lot. They have climbed the transformer to reach the first floor. They have made a small opening in the glass window and unlocked it and walked inside after opening the window. It is suspected that someone who knew that opening the window would give them access to the store have carried out the robbery. The window lock is not visible from outside and the precise cut next to it reveals that the thieves knew its exact location, the police said. Security guard Dhondina, who was outside the store, told the police that he did not hear a whimper from inside the shop.