Maha: Jewellery store staff held for false gold robbery claim

A jewellery store employee was Tuesday arrested for falsely claiming that he had been robbed while transporting gold and silver in Maharashtra's Jalna district, a senior police official said.

Punjaapa Dukandar claimed that he had been robbed by unidentified persons who snatched his bag containing 100 grams of gold and 2.51 kilogrammes of silver, cumulatively valued at Rs 4.61 lakh, Additional Superintendent of Police Samadhan Pawar said.

He was given the gold and silver biscuits by his employer Shashikant Bodke, who owns a jewellery store in Jintur in neighbouring Parbhani, over 130 kilometres from here, to hand over to another jeweller in Jalna, the Additional SP said.

"Punjaapa claimed that he was travelling with the gold and silver in a rickshaw when some identified persons snatched his bag near the Jalna bus stand. His employer Bodke then filed a complaint with Sadar Bazar police station," the official said.

A Crime Branch team led by Inspector Rajendra Singh Gour, which started a parallel probe, found inconsistencies in the statements of the accused, he said.

Gour said a tip-off led them to a woman with whom the accused was reportedly in a relationship.

"The gold and silver were recovered from the woman's house," Gour told reporters.