Rs 14-crore robbery in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1

In the biggest-ever heist in the city, a jewellery shop in the busy Sector 17 was robbed of diamond and gold ornaments worth Rs 14 crore besides Rs 10 lakh in cash.

 Three youngsters in their mid-twenties, one of them a woman, entered the store, Forever Diamonds, posing as customers.

One of them had reportedly visited the store on Saturday and placed an order for a diamond ring worth Rs 3 lakh which was to be delivered today.

Shop owners Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma were at the store along with an employee, identified as Ajay, when the robbers arrived at 12.08 pm. They asked for the ring and sought some changes, following which Ajay left for Sector 35 to get the modifications done. As Rajnish walked towards the safe room, he was followed by one of the robbers, even as another pointed a pistol at Vinod and held him back.

The robbers put the ornaments and cash in a bag, locked the owners in the safe room and fled. All this took just 20 minutes. The robbers, who reportedly left at 12.26 pm, took away the recorder containing images of the incident recorded by the CCTV camera installed in the store. They spoke in Punjabi and English. One of them was clean-shaven while the other was bearded.

A few minutes later, the store owners broke the glass door of the safe room with a fire extinguisher. Rajnish called up the police at 12.35 pm while Vinod left for the Sector 17 police station.

The police have collected data to verify mobile numbers active in the area at the time of the robbery.