Jatni: Miscreants struck at a jewellery shop in Raja Bazaar area here late Saturday and made away with gold and silver ornaments worth around Rs 30 lakh after digging a tunnel to the shop.
According to Jatni police, the desperadoes entered ‘Gold Plaza Jewelleries’ after digging a four-foot tunnel along a drain adjacent to the shop and decamped with gold and silver ornaments. However, they could not break open the iron safe.
“Preliminary investigation suggests that the hoodlums took away ornaments worth Rs 30 lakh from 12 boxes on display in showcases. However, we are yet to ascertain the exact amount of the heist,” a Jatni police officer said.
The heist came to the fore when jeweller Mahesh Santuka opened the shop around 8am. “I opened the shutter to find the shop ransacked and earrings missing from the showcase,” the jeweller said, adding that the robbers had entered the store through the narrow tunnel.
On being informed, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Anup Sahu, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) PK Rout and Jatni inspector in-charge (IIC) Sanjiv Mohanty visited the shop with a forensic team and sniffer dog and carried out investigation.
“We have registered a case (243/18) and examining the towel, hammer and a punch which have been seized from the tunnel,” a Jatni police official said, adding that efforts are on to track down the goons at the earliest.
Police said although they have been laying importance on installation and timely maintenance of CCTV cameras in jewellery shops and banks, the CCTV camera at the shop was defunct for the past two days. “We could have got a breakthrough from the CCTV camera at the shop. But it was not to be,” a police official said, adding that they will inspect the footages of CCTVs installed in nearby shops.
Gold ornaments, cash looted from hanuman temple
Cuttack: Unidentified miscreants looted gold ornaments and cash from a Hanuman temple at Khandol under Mahanga block in Salepur area of Cuttack district. The matter came to light when the priests found the gold eyes of the idol missing and locks of the donation box broken Sunday morning. They immediately alerted the police regarding the loot.
Though the exact amount of cash looted from the donation box is yet to be ascertained, the priests claimed it had lakhs of rupees.
The temple authorities have also lodged a complaint regarding the loot at the local police station.
