Bihar: Jewellery worth Rs 20 lakh stolen in West Champaran

BAGAHA/PATNA: Two fraudsters, posing as customers, took away a box containing ornaments worth ₹20 lakhs from a jewellery shop near Police Line at Naraipur under Pathakauli police outpost in West Champaran on Tuesday. The shopkeeper claimed the incident took place around 3.15pm when he was busy handling other customers.
According to the police, the shop owner Munna Kumar was at his shop and the salesmen had gone for the lunch when the two miscreants posing as customers got off a motorcycle and entered the shop.They asked Munna to show them a silver plate used in wedding ceremony.
"The shop owner took one of them to the godown, which was few metres away from the shop. Before leaving the shop, he locked the jewellery vault and put the keys in the drawer of the shop counter, while another miscreant remained seated there. He opened the vault and took all the jewellery kept in a box," Ramvanchan Singh, in-charge of Pathakauli OP, said.
He told TOI when Munna returned to his shop, the miscreants made a payment of Rs 1,000 for a silver plate and left the shop after writing their contact number in a register. "The incident came to light when the shop owner opened the vault and saw it empty. There was no security guard or CCTV camera installed at the shop. It was irresponsible act of the shop owner to leave his shop unattended," Singh said.
"We are scrutinizing the CCTV footage of the cameras installed in nearby areas to identity the conmen. The police are trying to trace the contact number given by the miscreants," Singh added.