Rs 4.7 crore gold, diamonds burgled in Chennai

CHENNAI: A gang of burglars broke into a jewellery shop at Peravallur in North Chennai in the wee hours of Friday and made off with 9kg of gold worth around 4.5 crore and 20 lakh worth of diamond products.
While the suspects managed to dismantle and take away the digital video recorder (DVR) of the CCTV camera in the showroom and didn't make any noise during the nearly one hour spent looting the place, police who later scanned footage from cameras in nearby buildings, some of them trained on the building involved, said at least four men appeared to be involved.
While three were seen near the shutter of the main entrance, cutting it open using a portable gas welding machine, one waited outside, apparently on the lookout for anyone passing by. All of them later left in an SUV parked on a street nearby, police said.
Owner J Sridhar, 38, told police he didn't notice any suspicious activity until he closed the first floor shop on Thursday night and retired to his house on the second floor of the building at the Paper Mills Road-Agaram Main Road junction.
The ground floor is for customers' vehicles. Around 9am, Sridhar came to open the shop and noticed a hole cut in the shutter. "He entered, found the safe locker cut open and several items scattered all around," said a police officer.
Soon, a team of the Thiru Vi Ka Nagar police arrived with sniffer dog Karikalan and forensic experts. The dog ran up to 200 metres from the shop and stopped as the trail ran cold, he said. Later, Sridhar and his staff made checks in the presence of police and estimated that 20 lakh worth of diamonds and 4.50 crore of gold jewellery wighing 9kg were stolen.
Additional commissioner T S Anbu, north Chennai joint commissioner R V Ramya Bharathi, Pulianthope deputy commissioner I Eswaran and other officers visited the showroom for an on-the-spot check. Four special have been formed to investigate and and track down the suspects.