Mumbai: The crime branch has arrested two employees of a jewellery shop who entered into a conspiracy and stole gold ornaments worth Rs 72 lakh, replacing the ornaments with imitation ornaments at the Dubai-based jewellery firm.
When the employer lodged a police complaint, the duo called up the employer from Dubai and issued threats that more gold would disappear from his shop and that they would kill him if he failed to pay Rs 50 lakh extortion money. After the complainant came to Mumbai, he alleged that the accused threatened him over the phone on September 28 and demanded Rs 50 lakh, threatening to have another kilogram of gold stolen if the money was not paid. In all the two stole gold worth Rs 72 lakh.
Both were produced before a court, which remanded them in police custody. The company subsequently lodged a complaint in Dubai. During further investigations it transpired that the accused would make a lookalike jewellery of brass or other metals and replace genuine jewellery with these. Burman, who hails from West Bengal, had arrived in India and was staying in a Naxalite area thinking that police will not go there.
The police on Monday arrested the two employees, Subroto Burman and Ajay Pathar, on charges of theft, threat and extortion.
The company discovered the alleged fraud in June 2026 after suspicious damaged and altered gold was examined using a carat-meter. Of around 675 grams checked, 386 grams was allegedly found to be fake. A subsequent stock verification reportedly revealed another 84.33 grams of fake gold.
During the course of internal investigation it transpired that Burman would take genuine gold from the shop and sell it to the cashier as old gold.