Goldsmith held for duping jeweller of 22 lakh

Pune: The Chinchwad police on Sunday arrested a goldsmith on the charge of duping a jeweller by stealing 245g of gold worth Rs22 lakh, which was given to him for melting.The accused, Simanta Santosh Samanta of Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal, stole the gold in the last 10 minutes. A Chinchwad police team led by police sub-inspector Kiran Balip took Samanta into custody before he could escape to his hometown in West Bengal. "The accused was remanded to police custody till Feb 18," Balip told TOI.
The officer said that Samanta was working as the goldsmith for a Chinchwad-based jeweller. He used to stay and work on the 4th floor of a building where the jewellery store is located. He used to melt the gold provided to him by the jeweller for making the ornaments. "For the last 10 months, the complainant was observing a shortage of a few grams of gold, which was given to the accused. Recently, he carried out an audit and found a deficit of 245g of gold worth Rs 22 lakh," the officer said. Balip said that when the jeweller realised Samanta's involvement, he lodged a complaint. When the police team reached Samanta's room, they found that he was about to leave the city. "We arrested him. We are in the process of recovering stolen gold from him," Balip said.