Two employees have been arrested by the MIDC police in Andheri, working at a jewellery-making company, for an alleged theft of ₹7.5 lakhs worth of gold. The two were caught in the CCTV camera installed inside the shop. The Sidds Jewels India Llp jewellery shop is located at Seepz in Andheri East. The shop's general manager, Nilesh Papte, approached the police last week.
The Sidds Jewels India Llp jewellery shop employs over 300 people
According to Papte, his company has over 300 employees, and the refinery department has five employees – who look into collecting the gold dust, which is then converted into gold and diamond jewellery.
HR noticed inconsistencies in accounts
Papte, also the company's HR, noticed inconsistencies in their accounts in December 2023 – which showed that 150 grams of gold that were converted from gold dust were less. On January 6, security personnel informed Papte that one of the employees at the refinery department, Shivam Yadav, was seen stuffing his pockets with something from the locker via the CCTV camera. When the personnel questioned Yadav, he excused himself and left home. Yadav's friend Santosh Yadav was suspected to be involved, said Papte.
"We had earlier received some complaints regarding Shivam and Santosh related to theft, but they always made some excuse and got out of it. But this time, we checked all the previous records and footage to realise they had been stealing gold from the locker for quite a while," said Papte in his statement, adding that they are suspected to be involved with several other employees in this theft.
Police arrested both employees
The police arrested Shivam and Santosh and have remanded them to judicial custody. Satish Gaikwad, the senior police inspector of MIDC police station, said, "We managed to recover ₹7.5 lakhs worth of gold. Some were gold dust, and some in jewellery form, all recovered from the two. The theft went unnoticeable because they took it in micro quantities, the gold dust, but we are investigating further about other employees being involved."
In 2021, the company filed an FIR against another employee
Surprisingly, back in 2021, the same company filed an FIR against another employee of the same department named Ramesh Tiwari. As per that FIR, Tiwari was accused of theft of gold dust and jewellery worth over ₹1.64 crores. Even though he was sacked from his job by the company's owner, he was never arrested due to lack of evidence. Only after Tiwari's incident came to light were CCTVs installed in the cameras.
Police said that the investigation was to understand if there was any link between Tiwari and the two Yadavs or more people behind the repeated theft. "We are inquiring further," said DCP Dattatrey Nalwade, zone 10.
