Madhya Pradesh: Burglars drill through nine-inch showroom wall to rob jewellery worth Rs 12 crore

In what is suspected to be a carefully planned burglary, thieves broke through a nearly nine-inch-thick rear wall of a jewellery showroom in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni, entered the premises, and escaped with gold and diamond ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 12 crore.

The burglary took place at Kisna Jewellers in the Bargawan area, near the LIC office, during the early hours of Thursday. The thieves allegedly spent considerable time inside the showroom, breaking into safes and emptying display counters, before escaping with a substantial quantity of jewellery.

The scale of the theft became apparent when employees arrived to open the showroom on Thursday morning. They found the interiors ransacked, the display counters emptied out, and the safes broken open.

The owner, Mohan Bajaj, was informed and the police were subsequently alerted.

Bajaj said the showroom had additional jewellery stock due to the festive season. “Gold and diamond jewellery worth approximately Rs 12 crore has been stolen,” he said.

The method used to enter the showroom has become the central focus of the investigation. Rather than breaking the shutter or forcing open the main entrance, the burglars made a hole in the rear wall and used it to gain access to the premises, said police. The thickness of the wall and the manner in which it was breached lead investigators to suspect that the operation involved prior planning, they added.

Katni Superintendent of Police Abhinav Vishwakarma, who visited the crime scene, said preliminary investigations suggested that the burglary took place between 4 am and 7 am on Thursday.

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“The thieves targeted the safe and the display counters. They appear to have studied the layout of the showroom in advance,” Vishwakarma said.

Police have taken possession of CCTV footage from cameras installed inside the showroom and are examining recordings from those on nearby roads, in markets and at other strategic locations.

Investigators are attempting to establish how the burglars reached the showroom, and the route they took after escaping.

A forensic team besides fingerprint experts were also called to the spot. They collected evidence from the damaged wall, safes and display counters in an attempt to identify those involved. Police have constituted several teams to investigate the case and trace the stolen jewellery.

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Anand Mohan J is an award-winning Senior Correspondent for The Indian Express, currently leading the... Read More