Bengaluru: Three men pose as buyers, flee with Rs 3 crore gold ornaments

An FIR has been registered against three men for allegedly cheating a gold jewellery firm and decamping with ornaments worth around Rs 3 crore in Malleswaram.

An FIR has been registered against three men for allegedly cheating a gold jewellery firm and decamping with ornaments worth around Rs 3 crore after posing as wholesale buyers, police said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in Malleswaram on May 16 and was captured on CCTV cameras, they said.

According to the complaint filed by the sales manager of Mehta Gold Pvt Ltd, as per the instructions of his senior colleague, he and another employee carried nearly 3 kg of gold jewellery samples to the office of Paresh Soni, who had introduced himself as a wholesale gold trader interested in purchasing ornaments.

At Soni's office, he introduced two other persons, Shyam and Chandrashekhar Rao. As Soni selected the ornaments he liked, Shyam checked them using a machine and noted their weight in grams.

After selecting the ornaments, Soni allegedly handed over around 1 kg, 850 grams of jewellery to Rao in an adjacent cabin on the pretext of preparing a list and photographing the designs.

The complainant further alleged that Rao fled with the ornaments, while Shyam also escaped, claiming he would bring him back.

The FIR stated that the accused persons, with the intention of committing theft, pretended to inspect the jewellery designs and take photographs, and then stole the ornaments and escaped. The stolen jewellery is estimated to be worth around Rs 3 crore.

A case has been registered at Malleswaram police station against Soni, Rao, and Shyam under Sections 305 (theft), 318(4) (cheating), and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Efforts are underway to trace and arrest the accused persons.