Mumbai : The Unit VII of the Crime Branch has claimed to have cracked the robbery of diamonds worth Rs 90 lakh from a jewellery store in Ghatkopar, by having arrested one Dhirubhai Munjibhai Patel (52) from Ahmedabad Thursday.
On September 21, three unknown persons had visited the jewellery store on MG Road in Ghatkopar, east. They said that they are diamond traders and would like to buy diamonds from the store. The three selected diamonds worth Rs 90 lakh and asked the jeweller to keep the diamonds in a khaki-coloured pouch. They promised to come back with the money a day later on September 23.
On September 23, when the three alleged accused came to pick up the diamonds, they got another similar-looking pouch filled with fake diamonds. With a sleight of hands, they exchanged the two pouches, replacing the one with the real diamonds with the other that contained fake diamonds. They then heckled about the price with the jeweller, broke the deal and left.
The jeweller on the other hand, after examining the diamonds, realised that the pouch contained fake diamonds and that he had been duped of Rs 90 lakh. Consequently, a complaint was filed at Pant Nagar police station.
The Crime Branch, based on the shop’s CCTV footage, prepared sketches of the three accused. They combed all those places in Mumbai where the trade of diamonds takes place. However, after getting no leads, a team of officers then went to Gujarat and tried to trace the three in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, and Amreli.
They finally got a lead in Ahmedabad where they identified one of the three accused. He was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon and was arrested after interrogation. While he confessed to have carried out the theft with his two associates, diamonds worth Rs 20 lakh were recovered from him. The cops are now looking for the other two accused in the case.
