Tanishq showroom looted in Bihar’s Purnea; thieves lock staff in room, flee with diamonds and gold jewellery

As many as six men locked the staff of a Tanishq showroom in a room before fleeing with gold and diamond jewellery in Purnea of Bihar. The thieves, who snatched the mobile phones at gunpoint, had entered the Tanishq showroom as customers.

The incident was reported on Friday morning. The staffers have estimated that the looted jewellery must be worth crores but they do not know the exact value.

A Tanishq staffer told Hindustan Times: “They committed the loot in an organised manner and within 20 minutes they decamped with gold and diamond worth in crores.” The staffer said two thieves, aged between 22-25, were wearing masks while the others were not.

The staffer said, “They also captured the guards. Two of the criminals were wearing masks while the rest did not cover their faces. They were aged between 22-25.” They were carrying a big bag.

While fleeing, some went in the East direction, some went in the opposite. “Three on one bike went towards the east while the other three escaped towards the west,” said the staffer. “There was a big bag with them.”

“We are thankful to God that we are alive,” the staff was quoted as saying.

“We have alerted all the police stations of the Purnea and neighbouring districts to nab the criminals. We have collected the CCTV footage of the showroom and also of the outside,” Sub-divisional police officer Pushkar Kumar said.

A few months ago, the Mumbai branch of State Bank of India (SBI) witnessed a robbery by one of its employees when 4 kgs of gold worth ₹3 crore went missing. SBI’s Personal Banking branch in Mulund West had given gold loans worth ₹1.94 crore, which is around 65 per cent of the value of the mortgaged gold ornaments, police informed.

The prime accused, a 33-year-old service manager, Manoj Maruti Mhaske, siphoned off about 4 kg of gold jewellery worth around ₹3 crore from the bank’s locker.