Airoli: 'Helpless' owner watches on CCTV as jewellery shop is looted

The shop owner, Ramesh Shirodkar, helplessly watched live CCTV footage of the heist next door as he “couldn’t muster the courage” to call the police.

A group of unidentified people stole gold ornaments worth Rs 12.13 lakh from a jewellery shop in the early hours of Tuesday. The shop owner helplessly watched live CCTV footage of the heist next door as he “couldn’t muster the courage” to call the police.

HT Image

At around 3.25am , the miscreants broke open the shutters of Shirodkar Jewellers in Sector 17, gaining entry to the shop. They escaped with gold and gold jewellery weighing 485 grams.

The owner, Ramesh Shirodkar, who lives next door, woke up on hearing the noise of the shutter locks being broken. He watched the shop being burgled on his computer, which was connected to the CCTV cameras installed in the shop. According to officers at Rabale police station, Shirodkar could not “muster the courage” to call the police immediately and only managed to approach them after the miscreants had fled.

The police rushed to the spot after learning of the incident and conducted a panchnama.

“We have seen the CCTV footage, which show a culprit entering the shop. Four other thieves were also spotted. All of them fled in a car after stealing the jewellery,” said Gorakh Gojare, senior inspector of Rabale police station. “Had the shop owner contacted us on time, we would have foiled the robbery attempt.”

Gojare said investigations were on and that the police had launched a manhunt to catch the accused.