Gold, jewellery worth Rs 1.8 crore stolen from firm in Chennai; five arrested
Some of the workers are based in Chennai and for works which cannot be carried out in Chennai, the diamonds will be sent to Kolkata and brought back, police said.
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CHENNAI: Probing a complaint from a city-based diamond jewellery manufacturing firm about pilferage of Rs 1.8 crore worth gold and diamonds from their firm over time, City police arrested five persons including a Kolkata native and staff of the firm on Tuesday.
The Kolkata man has built a house and car with his ill-gotten wealth, police investigations have revealed.
Pondy Bazaar police had registered a case based on a complaint from Goutham Chand Bothra, Director of White Fire Diamonds India private limited, a company engaged in manufacturing diamond jewellery.
The company has outsourced the making of the jewellery to a West Bengal-based jewellery workshop, Shrinjini which has expert jewellery makers.
Some of the workers are based in Chennai and for works which cannot be carried out in Chennai, the diamonds will be sent to Kolkata and brought back, police said.
According to the police, the mastermind, Preetham Ganguly (25) was the manager of Shrinjini and co-ordinated with White Fire diamonds and the workers.
During an internal audit, the company found that about 1.2 kg of gold and 140 carats of diamond- totally worth Rs 1.8 crore- which they had supplied to Shrinjini over the course of two years was pilfered periodically with the help of the city-based firm.
Police investigations revealed that Preetham was the mastermind and he colluded with workers in White Fire to steal the diamonds without the owners noticing.
A team led by Teynampet ACP (assistant commissioner of police), Arokiya Raveendran conducted investigations and arrested five persons - Preetham Ganguly (25) and four staff of White Fire diamonds, N Pradeep (30) of Mayiladuthurai, U Sathish Kumar (40) of Tambaram, A Arun Raj (27) and T Murugaraj (31) - both from Mayiladuthurai.
Police recovered 259 grams of gold and 37 carats of diamond and Rs 6 lakh cash from the accused.
Pradeep too bought a property in his hometown, police said. "We are taking all efforts to seize the properties," said a police officer.