Gold worth over Rs 2 crore stolen from I-T office in Kota, 3 held

Three persons have been arrested for allegedly burgling into the Income Tax department officer in Rawatbhata Road area here and decamping with gold worth over Rs 2 crore from a safe there, the police said today.

Ravindra Rajput (24), a computer operator in the office employed on contract, Vikas Khateek (22) and Ashish Sameriya (23), all natives of Suket town in Kota district, were arrested this evening, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Kota city Sameer Kumar said.

They broke into the office of the assistant director (investigation) of the on the second floor of the Revenue Building last night and broke the CCTV cameras installed in the office. Since Ravindra Rajput knew where the key of the safe was kept, they broke open the door of an almirah, took out the key and decamped with the gold sealed in two boxes in the safe, they said.

The gold stolen from the safe was seized by officers of the I-T department from the the residence of a jeweller here during search operations conducted at different places between April 18 and 21, a police officer said.

According to the Deputy Director of the Income Tax Department, Kota, Arjun Lal Meena, the value of the gold stolen is Rs 2,24,90,626, he said.

The three accused tore files and papers related to seizure and scattered them outside the chamber of the office to give an impression that the crime was committed by jewellers' men, the ASP said, adding they had attempted to commit the burglary on Friday night but postponed it due to alert presence of the night watchman.

Almost all the stolen gold was recovered from the three accused, he said.