Hyderabad:The Punjagutta police solved the gold theft case reported in the last week of August and caught two persons on Friday. Police recovered over 2,052 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs.1 crore from them.
The arrested persons were Gulab alias Gulab Mali (32), a worker at a jewellery in Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai and a resident of Palgarh of Maharastra and Pravin Kumar (30), a resident of Rajasthan.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said Gulab Mali was working as a salesman at Shravan Kumar Gehlot’s shop in Mumbai for nearly a decade. He used to collect gold ornaments from Gehlot and sell sample designs at jewelleries in Hyderabad.
“He invested huge money in Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX) trading and incurred losses. Apart from this, his income did not suffice for his expenses and he decided to steal and sell the jewelry,” Anjani Kumar said, adding that he shared his plot with his friend Pravin Kumar. On August 23, Gulab Mali along with his colleague Mukesh collected 3,336 grams of gold ornaments from Mumbai and boarded a private bus to Hyderabad.
According to the police, Pravin too boarded the same bus without taking a ticket and midway, Gulab handed over the gold ornaments to him and took three sleeping pills.
“When he woke up at Ameerpet next morning, Gulab pretended as if someone had stolen the bag of gold ornaments when he was asleep. He informed his employer,” the Commissioner said.
Shravan Kumar, who reached Hyderabad first approached the Saifabad police and lodged a complaint. A zero FIR case was booked, which was further transferred to the Punjagutta police, who zeroed in on Gulab Mali, who was taken into custody and during interrogation, confessed to the theft.
