Behind the ₹20 crore heist at Delhi jewellery store — big dreams, criminal mind

The suspect, described as a “lone wolf jewel thief” by Delhi Police and “local Charles Sobhraj” by Chhattisgarh Police, committed his first burglary at 16

Like his father, Lokesh Srivas was expected to earn a meagre income as a barber — cut hair, sweep the floor once the client left, repeat.

On September 25, Lokesh Srivas took off with jewellery and cash worth ₹20 crore from the Bhogal store. (Sanjeev Verma/HT photo)

But Srivas’s dreams were too big to be held hostage in Kawardha, a sleepy town in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district, where he grew up in abject poverty. Instead, he dreamed of a chain of salons, gyms, and an SUV.

To fulfil these aspirations, however, the 31-year-old allegedly turned to a life of crime — one that started with a theft at a grocery store in his village in 2007, and morphed into elaborate, meticulously planned heists in at least five states that caught up with him again last month.

On September 24 and 25, Srivas allegedly attempted his riskiest job — taking off with 18.6kg gold jewellery and cash worth ₹20 crore from a jewellery store in Bhogal in south Delhi. Four days later, after an intense investigation that brought the Delhi and Chhattisgarh Police forces together, he was arrested from a dingy room in Bhilai, along with at least 200 pieces of jewellery and ₹12.5 lakh in cash.

In the past, he committed at least three big heists — one each in Bhilai (Chattisgarh), Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. He was arrested after each successful heist, only to get out on bail and strike again. And along the way, he earned monikers from law enforcement — for Delhi Police, he is a “lone wolf jewel thief”, and for Chhattisgarh Police, he is their “local Charles Sobhraj”.

Srivas committed his first burglary when he was just 16, according to officers in Chhattisgarh and Delhi Police who have either been on his trail in the last few years or interrogated him after the heist in the Capital. His target then was a grocery store in his village, Naya Para, 25km away from Karwadha town. He stole some cash, chocolates, snacks, beverages and some foodgrain for himself and his family.

“He was apprehended, but nothing was recovered. Since he was a juvenile, he was sent to a correction home for rehabilitation. After his release six months later, his family sent him to Bhilai to work at a relative’s salon,” said sub-inspector Krishna Sahu of Bilaspur police.

Born to Kapil and Pyari Bai, Srivas is the fourth of their six children. While growing up, the family depended on his father’s earnings as a barber. “Our financial condition was bad as my earnings as a barber and an agricultural labourer were not enough. We had a kutcha house then,” said his father Kapil.

A house that the family bought in the early 2000s in Kawardha is now a two-storey structure with a heavy iron gate, a wooden sofa set, air coolers, and tiled floors.

Rumour has it that Srivas bought a Mahindra Thar and opened a gym using the allegedly stolen money. “He did buy a car in 2018 on a monthly instalment-basis but the insurance company seized it as Srivas was arrested by Odisha Police and the instalments were not paid,” said his father. He also opened a gym in Kawardha called Power House Gym with his friend.

“Srivas studied till Class 10... While he was good at studies, his early childhood was spent in poverty. As he grew older, he became ambitious and dreamed of becoming rich overnight,” said a second officer from the anti-crime unit of Bilaspur police.

In the last six months, Srivas has committed 16 burglaries in Bilaspur, prompting the force to create a WhatsApp group called “Mission Charles Sobhraj” to nab him, said Sahu. The group has 17 local officers. “Like Charles Sobhraj, Srivas was also committing back-to-back burglaries in shops without getting arrested. Srivas was also executing the thefts like a one-man army,” said Sahu.

From 2010 to 2017, Srivas struck in Raipur, Bilaspur, Bhilai, and Kabirnagar. “He was arrested in 13 cases and externed from Kawardha by the local DCP (SP) rank officer,” said Sahu.

This was no deterrent, however. Srivas pulled off another big heist in Odisha in 2018, only to be arrested soon after. He spent a year in jail and was released in November 2019, a Chhattisgarh Police officer said. Then, in 2020, he struck again — this time in Bhilai, where he allegedly burgled Parakh Jewellers and took off with jewellery worth ₹2.6 crore and ₹1.5 lakh cash. “He stayed inside the showroom for 23 hours, he worked alone, and he made a hole in the wall. It’s a pattern that was seen in the Delhi heist too,” said Sahu.

Srivas reached a stage where he realised he could not operate in the state any longer, officers said. “His state police were looking for him in relation to at least 16 shop break-ins. It was harder to commit these acts there now,” said a Delhi Police officer, who asked not be named.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Rajesh Deo, said Srivas continued to live in Bhilai, but visited Delhi thrice for recces at the jewellery shop, the three-storey Umrao Singh Jewellers in Bhogal, before making his move on September 24.

“He first came on September 9, and asked an auto-rickshaw driver outside the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station to drop him off at a big market nearby. He was dropped off at Bhogal and took a round of the market, looking for a jewellery store he could target,” said inspector Rajender Singh Dagar of the anti-auto theft squad of southeast district.

During his first trip, he found his target, Umrao Singh Jewellers, but left quickly out of fear that police were dotting the city due to the G20 Summit. On September 15, he returned for two days. And on September 21, he showed up for the third recce, before finally entering the store three days later.

The ₹20 crore theft at the shop stunned Delhi Police by its sheer ingenuity. While there was no CCTV footage of the theft itself, a man could be seen entering an adjacent building at 10.45pm on September 24, and leaving around 7pm on September 25 — more than 19 hours later.

“He learned the market remains closed on Mondays, so he knew he must enter the store on a Sunday. He went inside the showroom for a few minutes and counted the number of employees and the CCTV cameras,” said Dagar. DCP Deo, who was one of the officers to interrogate Srivas, described him as “a master thief, with perfect planning, patience, and keen eye for and operation”.

On September 24, otherwise an ordinary Sunday, the game was on. According to police, Srivas spent the day observing the owner, went back to his guest house in Kashmere Gate, ate dinner, and returned to Bhogal with a backpack at around 10pm.

He allegedly made it to the terrace from the roof of an adjacent building. “Srivas did not know how to reach the showroom on the ground floor from the terrace. He held on to the long iron rods of the advertisement hoarding of the store in the front, climbed down, and entered the ground floor through a gap. He disconnected the CCTVs, and he feared that any kind of drilling noise at night would wake up residents of the adjacent building — so he slept,” said DCP Deo.

“He started the break-in only at 11am on Monday, when the market was closed, but not when it was totally quiet. During his recce, he had observed the shop has a strongroom where jewellery is kept. He got into it by making a 1.5-feet-wide hole with a hammer and a screwdriver in the wall in two hours,” said the DCP.

After spending about six hours inside the strongroom, at around 7pm, when the sun had just set, he left the way he had come. He now reached the terrace using a key he found on the ground floor, and used the adjacent building’s roof and staircase to come out, said a third police officer.

Job done, Srivas headed straight towards Kashmere Gate bus terminal, purchased a ticket for a sleeper AC bus, and left for Sagar in Madhya Pradesh at around 9pm with goods worth ₹20 crore in his bag.

It was this ticket purchase that perhaps led Delhi Police to him in a rented room in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai on September 29. “There was no CCTV footage from inside the store but there was footage of the suspect entering the building around 10.45pm and exiting the next day around 7pm. His physical description did not match with any such burglars known to be active in Delhi and its adjoining states,” said a fourth investigator, asking not to be named.

The suspect’s movements were then tracked across the city before and after the burglary. “This way we figured out that the suspect had taken a bus. He bought the ticket under his name and gave a phone number,” said the investigator. The number was put on technical surveillance, and it showed the last location as Bhilai. A simple Google search, “Bhilai + Lokesh + jewellery showroom theft” by a Delhi Police sleuth threw up a series of news stories about the accused — especially a similar jewellery store heist in Bhilai in February 2020.

He matched the physical description of the Bhogal burglar, and a team of Delhi Police with Bilaspur police raided the rented room in Bhilai to nab Srivas.

But Srivas’s family and state police officers believe he may never quit this life of crime.

“He will always remain a thief for me. I don’t want to be called his father. Three years ago, he said to my face he will not quit stealing. He is dead to me. All he has brought to the family is shame and trouble,” said his father, weeping into the phone.