Bengaluru: A burnt matchstick gave away the plot of a jewellery shop employee, who along with three of his friends, had robbed the shop of gold and silver articles worth over Rs 2 crore recently.
The Bagalur police, who took up the investigation, solved the case within two days of the heist by arresting the four accused and recovering gold valuables worth Rs 2 crore.
The accused have been identified as Goparam alias Gopal, 26, who was working in the jewellery shop, Paras Mal, 35, who worked in a brick factory, A. Manjunath, 40, and N. Muniyappa, 45. While Gopal and Paras hailed from Rajasthan, the other two were residents of Bagalur. Manjunath and Muniuyappa had no regular work.
Between 7 am and 7.15 am on Friday, three people entered Sri Rajalakshmi Jewelers & Bankers shop in Dwarakanagar and threatened Gopal, who was performing pooja, that they would set him ablaze if he screamed. Then they escaped with 12 boxes of jewellery worth around Rs 2 crore that had been pledged by different customers. After they escaped, Gopal informed Govind Singh, the owner of the shop, who alerted the police.
But there was a catch in the almost perfectly executed crime. During questioning, Gopal who was the sole witness to the crime, gave different versions on the sequence of events. The police first thought it could be because of the shock he suffered following the theft. But later, when he again changed his version, the police grew suspicious. Gopal had told the police that the robbers had poured kerosene over him and had even struck a matchstick threatening to burn him down, if he raised an alarm. “During inspection, the matchstick seized from the spot matched with the sticks used by Gopal to light the incense sticks. This also helped us in grilling Gopal about the sequence of events,” an official said.
“We found that the robbers had escaped with the digital video recorder attached to the CCTV camera, making it difficult for us to establish the identity of the robbers. Gopal, the only person to have seen the robbers, was questioned and details on the description of the robbers were taken. During questioning and while explaining the sequence of events, he gave contradictory statements. Initially, we did not take it seriously as he seemed to be in a shock,” an official said.
“When he was questioned again after a while, he gave multiple versions on the sequence of events, raising our suspicion. When he was subjected to intense questioning, he confessed to the offence,” they said.
“He revealed to us that he came to Bengaluru around 13 years ago and had worked in two jewellery shops of to his relatives for eight years – four years at each. The owners of both shops had promised to set up a shop for him if he worked with them for five years. They paid him meagre salaries and made him work without breaks. But both of them had sacked him just after he completed around four years,” the police said.
“He had joined Rajalakshmi Jewelers around two years ago. The shop owner, Govind Singh, too had promised to set up a shop for him after four years. But two months ago, a Govind’s relative had joined work. After that, the owner reportedly did not pay Gopal the salary in time, did not allow him to visit his family in Rajasthan and harassed him every day, claiming that there was a shortage of money than mentioned in the book. Gopal thought his employer was doing this to force him to quit the job and hatched a plot for the robbery to get back at Govind,” the police said.
“He contacted his friend Paras and two others and executed the plan on Friday. Based on his information, Paras Mal, who had returned to Rajasthan, was arrested, while the two others were arrested here,” the police said. The police have recovered 6 kg of gold jewellery and 4 kg of silver articles from them.
