Delhi: Jewellery store employee fakes attack to pass it off as a robbery attempt

The employee was getting married and needed the money to fund his wedding. So, he decided to siphon off 985g of gold by passing it off as a robbery.

A 33-year-old employee of a jewellery showroom in central Delhi’s Karol Bagh stabbed himself with a nail on a flyover late last month to pass off the injury as an armed robbery attempt and siphon off 985 grams of gold jewellery, police said on Sunday.

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The gold jewellery with a market worth of nearly ₹50 lakh has been recovered from Umesh Bhosle, who was working as a salesman for a jewellery showroom in Karol Bagh since 2019, said Sanjay Bhatia, deputy commissioner of police (central district).

“On September 30, he made a police call to allege that he was carrying the gold in a bag and travelling on Zakhira Flyover when two motorcycle-borne men attacked him with a knife and fled with his gold,” said the DCP.

Bhosle was hospitalised and treated for the non-fatal injuries even as the police registered a robbery case and began probing the case.

When the police obtained no leads from CCTV footage and their sources on the ground, they began speaking to Bhosle for clues about the alleged crime. “But we found his statements to be contradictory. When we questioned him further, he broke down and confessed to attacking himself with a nail and passing it off as a knife attack during a robbery,” said the DCP.

“Bhosle told us that he was getting married later this year and needed the money to fund his wedding. So, he decided to siphon off the jewellery by passing it off as a robbery,” said the DCP.

Bhosle was arrested on Saturday.