City jewellery shops become soft target for hardcore thieves

The thefts at jewellery shops in the city continued on Sunday, with a fourth incident being reported within a month.CCTV footage could not help identify the culprits as it lacked clarity. In the latest incident, unidentified persons gained entry into Lakshmi jewellery and pawn brokers, at Abdulpurmet under Hayatnagar police limits. They decamped with 2 kg of silver ornaments worth Rs 1 lakh. Around midnight, three persons entered the shop by making a hole in the wall. They took away 2 kg of silver ornaments,” said Hayatnagar inspector G Srinivas Kumar. Shop owner Ganapathi Choudhary lodged a complaint, he said. Police inspected the scene along with clues team and collected evidence. “The culprits also tried to break open the lockers where some gold ornaments were kept. They were inside the shop till 4. 05 am. CCTV footage taken from the shop did not have clarity due to darkness,” the inspector said. Police suspect that interstate gangs are involved in jewellery thefts in the city. Guidelines have been issued to jewellery shop owners for taking measures to prevent such offences. Police see the hand of gangs from Bihar and Gujarat, with expertise in opening locked shutters and making holes in walls. After the theft, the gangs move the stolen jewellery to places like Mumbai and sell it away at low prices. In the last few weeks, a woman and her two associates, posing as customers, stole gold ornaments studded with diamonds from MOR jewellery shop at Punjagutta. Elsewhere, culprits made entry by making holes to the walls of two jewellery shops. In another case, shutters were broke open and silver ornaments stolen from a shop under Sanathnagar police limits. “Many shop owners do not take steps to prevent such offences. Though jewellery shops have installed CCTVs, they do not function properly. Every shop should have security guards both day and night and install alarm systems. The alarm device installed at a jewellery shop at Kukatpally averted a major theft recently,” said LKV Ranga Rao, deputy commissioner of police, CCS. However, a majority of jewellery shops introduced the bar code identification system, in which each item has a radio frequency tag, which will check theft by fake customers. Ashok Kumar Gupta, secretary, Twin Cities Jewellery Shops Association, told Express that most of the jewellery shop owners are complying with the rules and regulations set by police.
About 70 percent of the shops have CCTV, he said. “Thefts at jewellery shops in the city take place every year during summer. The offenders come from elsewhere,” he added.

By Moule Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com