Conmen pose as police, decamp with Rs 11 crore jewellery

Employees of a jewellery store, who were returning to the city from Madurai in a car -with stocks of jewellery and cash- were "intercepted," at a toll plaza, they said.

Seven men posing as Idol Wing CID sleuths decamped with jewellery estimated to be worth about Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 lakh in cash near here, police said Monday. Employees of a jewellery store, who were returning to the city from Madurai in a car -with stocks of jewellery and cash- were "intercepted," at a toll plaza, they said.

Posing as personnel from the Idol Wing, they demanded to check the car to ascertain the veracity of jewels since their firm was under the scanner over a case related to the alleged theft of antique idols. When the unsuspecting employees allowed them to run a check, the conmen took away the jewellery and cash in their car after directing the staffers to follow them to the idol wing office.

Later, when the employees turned up at the idol wing office, they found that they have been duped. A senior Kancheepuram district police official said the culprits would be nabbed soon.