Jewellers take safety into their hands

City jewellers have decided to take their safety into their own hands instead of relying entirely on the police.

City jewellers have decided to take their safety into their own hands instead of relying entirely on the police.

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To ensure robbers don’t catch them off guard, the Goregaon jewellery shop owners’ association that comprises of 40 shops, has started keeping iron rods, hokey sticks and chilli powder in their shops.

This is a result of the police’s failure to nab the attackers who fired at the manager of a jewellery shop in Lokhandwala last week and the increasing number of thefts in jewellery shops.

“Every second day, a jeweller becomes a victim of robbery or assault. After the Lokhandwala firing we decided to take it on to ourselves to protect ourselves,” said Sanjay Jain, owner of Kardhar Jewellers in Goregaon.

The police have appreciated the initiative. “Self defense is the best defense and if the jewellers have decided to keep things that would be handy in case of an attack, it’s for their benefit,” said Police Inspector S. Sawant.

“We have decided to keep these things in addition to guards and CCTVs to stall robbers until help arrives,” said Subhash Sanghvi, of the Goregaon jewellers’ association.

The jewellers’ association of Andheri (West) said they have installed CCTVs in all 35 shops. “You are often caught off guard as the robbers come as customers. We will at least have the face grabs of the attackers,” said Anil Parmar, jeweller at Andheri.

Jewellers in the suburbs are more prone to attacks as thieves can get away easily feel the jewellers’ association of Zaveri Bazaar. “In south, we are a closely-knit community with shops in congested areas,” said Kumar Jain, member of the Mumbadevi Dagina Bazaar association.

“We have installed alarm systems with speakers so that in an emergency, we can alert our community and nab the robbers,” he added.