The Soni brothers, Jitendra and Bharat, are in hospital and while the latter has still to regain consciousness, the former is stable but in bad shape.
Workers at a gold ornament manufacturing factory in Kalupur struck their employers viciously on the head with iron rods and made off with 2200gm of 22 karat gold worth Rs32 lakhs, in a daring theft here on Monday night.
The Soni brothers, Jitendra and Bharat, are in hospital and while the latter has still to regain consciousness, the former is stable but in bad shape.
The robbery was a well-planned one. Six employees, Asim, Gautam Jr., Gauram Sr, Paritosh, Sanjay and one unidentified person, who police say all hail from Bengal, stayed back after completing their jobs at the factory till about half an hour past midnight, when work was coming to a close.
They trooped up to the second floor where Bharat was packing some 2200 grams of gold into plastic bags and hit him on the head and shoulders, rendering him unconscious on the spot.
They hauled the loot away but on the way down were confronted by Jitendra who has his office on the first floor of the premises.
Jitendra also received the same, brutal treatment, and the thieves then made good their escape after latching the factory doors from the outside. Jitendra crawled to the telephone and called up their brother Chandu and Jitendra’s son Viren, who reside in Iscon Residency, Gulbai Tekra.
It took the relatives half-an-hour to reach the scene of the crime and on arriving there, they immediately telephoned 108.
Jitendra and Bharat were taken to VS Hospital by the ambulance, but Bharat later had to be transferred to Sterling Hospital for advanced treatment as his condition was serious.
The Soni brothers own the Zinzuwadia chain of jewellery stores
which has shops in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the country.
PI RK Kumarwadia of Kalupur police station told DNA: “There were 22 workers, out of which 11 remained when their work was almost through. Normally the unit closes at 11.30 pm but because of the wedding/festival season, it remains open till late nowadays.
“The factory has CCTV which shuts down at 12 midnight, but from regular, daily footage, we have identified the crooks. We are confident of nabbing them soon. The red alert has been sounded and all exit points in the state have been sealed.”
In such crimes, the robbers generally keep the loot with a confidant and then try to escape to another state which is not their home one. “They quickly dispose of the gold hoping that, even if they are caught, they will some day get to use their ill-gotten gains,” police sources said.
Crime branch ACP Usha Rada, PI MD Choudhary, ACP Mayur Chavda, DCP SM Katara and AV Hingrajiya of the Forensic Lab, all visited Lambeshwar ki pol, Kuawalokhano, Kalupur where the crime took place.
Today, the police had a meeting with some 25 jewel manufacturers who have their units in Kalupur and discussed ways and means to avoid such thefts in the future.
“We have decided to give ID cards and check identities of all workers we employ,” a spokesman for the employers said after the meeting.
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