Major gold heist at Tanishq jewellery showroom in Madurai

In a major gold heist, a lone masked man has looted around 15 kg of gold and 3 kg of diamond ornaments that were on display at the newly-inaugurated TATA Tanishq jewellery showroom on Bypass Road in Madurai on Wednesday night.

The heist came to light only after the employees reported for duty on Thursday morning. Senior police officers, including the Commissioner of Police, S. Rajendiran, rushed to the scene of crime. The showroom was opened only few weeks ago and civil work including wiring, plumbing and installation of lift were still underway, the Commissioner said.

The closed circuit television cameras installed in the three-storey showroom building showed a lone masked man collecting the ornaments put on display on the first floor of the building and taking them away. The man, who was also wearing gloves, had neither drilled a hole in the wall nor broken open any locks.

The police suspect that he could have climbed up to the terrace of the building using the scaffolding still up and entered the empty shaft where installation of lift was left incomplete. He could have opened the floor gate of the lift and walked into the showroom and also exited the locked building using the same way, the police suspect.

The police were questioning the employees of the showroom and also making a list of construction workers who had worked in this site. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), A.G. Inigo Thivyan, said that three special teams, led by as many Assistant Commissioners, had been formed to trace the culprit.