Ghaziabad: Woman held over ₹31 lakh jewellery theft from bank locker

A probe revealed that Isha Goyal, the customer, had forgotten to properly lock the bank locker and left and the suspect’s locker was located adjacent to it

Ghaziabad: Nearly two months after gold and silver jewellery worth about ₹31 lakhs went missing from the locker of a nationalised bank at Raj Chopla in Modinagar, police on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old woman and recovered most of the stolen jewellery from her house.

The arrest followed a police complaint from Isha Goyal on October 25 at Modinagar police station, stating that jewellery, estimated about 40 tolas (466.5 grams) of gold, and about 50 to 60 tolas (583 -700 grams) of silver, was missing from her bank locker. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Police identified the suspects as Priya Garg, resident of Adarsh Nagar in Modinagar, and her husband as Nitin Garg, 33. The couple have three children. The husband is currently absconding. The suspects, who have a bank locker in the same bank’s branch, had visited it on October 19, a day before the Karva Chauth festival.

The development followed a police complaint from Isha Goyal on October 25 at Modinagar police station, stating that jewellery, estimated about 40 tolas (466.5 grams) of gold, and about 50 to 60 tolas (583 -700 grams) of silver, was missing from her bank locker.

“A probe revealed that the customer (Goyal) had forgotten to properly lock the locker and left. The suspect’s locker is adjacent to Goyal’s locker. The suspect couple on October 19 spotted the issue in the locker room. Instead of informing bank officials, they took out the jewellery from Goyal’s locker and bundled it in their bag before stepping out,” said Gyan Prakash Rai, assistant commissioner of police, Modinagar circle.

Stating that the locker was in the name of her, her husband and father-in-law, Goyal in her complaint said that her father-in-law had last operated the locker on August 28. On October 21, the bank staff called her up to inform about the missing items.

Police registered a first information report under section 305 (theft) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Police teams scanned hours-long CCTV footage in the bank and questioned bank staff and different customers.

“Initially we suspected that it was the handiwork of some bank staff for their easy access to the locker room. Then, we came across footage in which the suspect couple was seen coming out of the locked room with a bag. They seemed in a hurry and portrayed unnatural body movement. The woman went out of the bank branch immediately while her husband waited inside the branch and came out a few minutes later,” the ACP added.

Police said that the suspect woman was quizzed at length and she broke down.

Officers said that her call records indicated that she had contacted a jeweller in Meerut to sell off the jewellery, but could not do so. Finally, police teams recovered about 361 grams of gold jewellery and about 1.029 kilograms of silver jewellery from the suspect’s house.