RAIPUR: In a significant breakthrough, the police have uncovered links to one of the largest burglaries on a national scale connected to Chhattisgarh with the arrest of two individuals for their involvement in seven cases and the recovery of gold and cash linked to the burglary incident, valued at Rs 20 crore, at a jewelry shop in Delhi.
Police have recovered 18 kilograms of gold, ornaments and diamonds from their possession. The accused carried out theft in Bilaspur region in August and had their burglary net expanded to Delhi on September 24.
Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told TOI, “Based on the complaints related to seven theft cases that took place in different parts of state, police teams of Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg districts raided a house in Bhilai on Thursday and nabbed main accused Lokesh Srivas and Shiva Chandravanshi along with burgled items worth Rs 10 crore. A Thar car and Rs 23 lakh was also seized from their possession. In their statement, the accused revealed that the stolen items were from a burglary they committed in Delhi at a jewellery shop.”
When the police team raided the house in Bhilai, Lokesh was caught and another accused managed to flee by jumping out of the window, but he was later caught and arrested.
Delhi police was immediately alerted and a team of cops reached Chhattisgarh on Friday.
A resident of Kabirdham district of state, Lokesh was hiding at a friend’s place in Bhilai after Delhi burglary for past few days. According to police sources, he was arrested in 2011 and he escaped imprisonment when he was in Raigarh jail. He had been involved in theft cases worth several crores.
According to police, three persons were involved in burglary in Delhi jewellery store Umrao Singh Jewellers who decamped the strong room with ornaments and cash worth more than Rs 20 crore. The CCTV cameras were damaged on Sunday midnight, hours after the store owner closed the shop and he found out about the burglary only on Tuesday when he opened the shop.
To conceal his identity, he also had plans to get plastic surgery done on his face so that he never gets caught by police.
