Gang loots 47L gold, silver from Vikhroli store

MUMBAI: Three robbers broke into a jewellery store in Vikhroli early on Thursday and decamped with gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 46.88 lakh after allegedly binding and gagging two employees who were sleeping inside.
Suspecting the involvement of an insider, the police are currently interrogating the two staffers.
The gang sneaked inside the Mangaldeep Jewellers store, located on Station Road in Vikhroli (E), around 3.45 am."They entered the shop from the back door. First they broke the lock on the shutter and then, prized off the lock on the next door with the help of iron rods they had brought with them," said zonal DCP Sanjay Shintre. Prakashchandra Gujjar (18), one of the employees who were at the store that night, had gone to the toilet around 3 am, and while returning he allegedly forgot to lock the third door, the police said. Gujjar and his colleague, Dhalchand Kathed (47), claimed that they were so deep in sleep that they could not hear any noise till the gang was right inside the room, the police said.
Threatening them with their iron rods, the robbers bound and gagged the two employees before they could act. Kathed told TOI that the accused asked him for the keys to the main vault but when he said he did not have them, they started to stash the ornaments on display into their sacks. They also broke open drawers and took away everything they could find, Kathed told the police. The stolen booty comprised 1,935 gm gold jewellery, 30 kg silver ornaments and Rs 18,000 in cash.
At 4.30 am, after the gang fled with the valuables, the employees managed to free themselves and called up Prakash Jain, one of the owners of the store. "I called up the police control room and informed them of the robbery," Jain said. "We had gold and silver worth Rs 2 crore in the vault, which was untouched."
The Vikhroli police are now going through the footage of the CCTV installed inside the store. "the images show that the three robbers had covered their faces with cloth and one of them had a cap on. It's difficult to identify them," Shintre said, adding that his officers were examining two fingerprints that they found in the store.
The officials also suspect that a few months ago, the DCP's team had arrested a gang of burglars, called the Nadre gang, who used to target apartments alone. "The modus operandi of both these gangs is quite similar. But the gang involved in Thursday's robbery appears to be more tactful as they haven't hurt anyone, while the Nadre gang would assault people," Shintre added.