Delhi heist: Burglars disabled CCTV, alarm

The jewellery store in the busy Bhogal neighbourhood was missing at least 200 pieces of jewellery, including 125 diamond rings, worth upwards of ₹20 crore.

For decades, Umrao Singh Jewellers in Jangpura had been shut on Mondays. It was no different this week. But when owner Mahavir Prashad Jain walked in on Tuesday, he found every inch of the jewellery store caked in dust, many display shelves empty and the strongroom scarred by a large hole in one wall, which had been used to empty out the shop’s locker. All the alarms in the store had been disarmed and the CCTV connections snapped.

The jewellery shop at Jangpura’s Bhogal area. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The store in the busy Bhogal neighbourhood was missing at least 200 pieces of jewellery, including 125 diamond rings, worth upwards of ₹20 crore. A group of burglars had, on Sunday night, pulled off a dramatic heist on the 75-year-old jewellery store that went unnoticed for over 30 hours till Tuesday morning, said police, detailing an intricate plan that exploited nearly every loophole in the store’s security apparatus.

No suspects have been identified yet, police said, but added that the meticulously outlined operation suggested that insiders likely had a role to play. A case under sections 380 and 381 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was filed at the Nizamuddin police station.

Deputy commissioner of police (south-east) Rajesh Deo said the police control room (PCR) received a call at 10.55 am regarding burglary in a jewellery shop at Bhogal Market, Jangpura. “The shop was closed at 8pm on Sunday and remained closed the next day. Today, when the owners opened the shop at around 10.30am , they found that the concrete wall of the safe room of the shop has been broken.The owners have reported theft of 30 kg of gold jewellery and ₹ 5 lakh in cash. A case has been registered at several teams have been constituted to work out the case,” the DCP said.

According to officers who asked not to be named, the burglars went out of their away to formulate a plan that kept them from being identified.

Umrao Singh Jewellers is housed on the ground floor of a four-storey building on the congested Hospital Road in Bhogal, surrounded by commercial and residential units. Small packing units occupy the remaining floors in the building.

An initial probe, said police, revealed that the burglars first made their way to the terrace of the showroom from a neighbouring building around 11.20pm on Sunday. No security guards were deployed in the building at any point, DCP Deo.

They broke down the terrace door and walked to the ground floor, which housed the storeroom, said police. There, they disarmed the six alarms and snapped the wires connecting the CCTV system with the six in-store cameras. The burglars then made their way to the 24sq ft strongroom, which is built into a corner of the ground floor and protected with metal walls on three sides and concrete on the fourth. Using gas cutters, the burglars bored a hole into the concrete wall, which is adjacent to a staircase.

“The hole is about two-feet wide,” said a police officer who asked not to be named.

Once inside, they sliced through the locker using the gas cutter and proceeded to pocket the roughly 200 pieces of jewellery inside, including over 125 diamond rings. After clearing the strongroom, they emptied out one of the store displays and the cash registers, which had around ₹5 lakh cash.

Mahavir Prashad Jain (77), the store owner, said the stolen ornaments were insured. “The store was set up in 1948 and is among the oldest in this market. We never stock uninsured jewellery,” he said. His son, Sanjeev Jain (42), said the theft came to light when he and his father opened the shop on Tuesday morning.

A forensics team checked the spot on Tuesday afternoon and recovered a hammer and metal rods possibly used to help break into the strongroom.

DCP Deo said the crime suggested that the burglars shared a degree of familiarity with the store. “We are looking at a list of all current and past employees of the showroom. Given the way the thieves knew exactly when and where to strike, and which side of the strong room to bore a hole into, we suspect an insider’s role,” he said.

Police are also looking into the backgrounds of people living in the adjoining buildings.

Ravinder Taneja, owner of the building that the burglars used to gain access to the store, said the access to his building’s terrace is unrestricted. “Since two floors in the building are residential, we do not lock the main gate that leads to stairs and the terrace,” said Taneja.