In a shocking case of theft, diamonds worth ₹3 crore were stolen from the vault of a 57-year-old diamond trader’s office in the Panchratna building at Opera House. Upon reviewing the CCTV footage, the police discovered that the thief was none other than the trader’s own son. The DB Marg Police arrested the accused and stated that the stolen diamonds would soon be recovered based on the information provided during the interrogation. The court has remanded the accused to police custody until February 27.
According to police reports, complainant Vipul Jogani (57) is a well-known diamond trader with an office in the Panchratna building at Opera House, where diamond trading takes place. Due to the high-value transactions, a vault was installed in the office to store valuable diamonds. The Panchratna building houses several diamond traders' offices and has strict security arrangements in place.
Jogani had not been visiting his office regularly due to health issues. However, on Thursday, he discovered that diamonds worth ₹3.05 crore were missing from the office vault. Alarmed, he immediately checked the CCTV footage, which revealed that his son, Nirmam, along with some office staff, had visited the office at that time. Suspecting foul play, Jogani promptly lodged a complaint with the DB Marg Police. The police registered a case of theft and seized the CCTV footage for further investigation.
The footage showed that Nirmam had opened the vault at 8:30 PM on Thursday. However, since he did not possess the key, the police detained him for questioning. During interrogation, Nirmam confessed that he had secretly made an impression of the vault key using a soap bar and created a duplicate key. He admitted to stealing the diamonds from the vault and was subsequently arrested on Monday. After being produced in court, he was remanded to police custody until February 27.
According to police officials, on the night of February 20, Nirmam used the duplicate key to steal diamonds worth ₹3 crore and ₹5 lakh in cash from his father’s vault. This included ₹2.3 crore worth of diamonds owned by his father, ₹70 lakh worth of diamonds entrusted to him by relatives, ₹5 lakh in cash, and two hard disks containing vital business data. The police have gathered crucial information about the stolen diamonds during the interrogation and are confident of recovering them soon.