Rs.6.5 crore diamond heist at international jewellery expo

MUMBAI - In a crime that seems to be straight out of a Bollywood movie, diamonds worth over Rs.6.5 crore were stolen from a stall at the India International Jewellery Week that concluded here Monday evening, a top police official said.

The stolen diamonds weighed approximately 88,999 carats.

According to Additional Police Commissioner (north region) Ramrao Pawar, the incident came to light when the stall exhibitors were packing up after the five-day expo ended here around 6 p.m. Monday.

“The complainant, an Israeli national, stated that five unidentified foreign nationals had visited his stall some time this afternoon. Later, a couple of them managed to divert his attention and the robbery took place,” Pawar told IANS late Monday night.

Initially, the diamond merchant brought the matter to the notice of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council and its office bearers, who suggested he should lodge a police complaint.

Later, around 9 p.m. the Israeli national finally filed a complaint with Goregaon police station in whose jurisdiction the national exhibition centre, where the expo was held, falls.

Pawar said right now the police are checking the contents of the CCTV recordings, but so far they have no clue about the identity of the five suspects who visited the stall.

Mumbai police have swung into action and teams have been sent to all big and small hotels in and around Mumbai to trace and identify the five suspects. They have sounded a look out alert at the Mumbai international airport, and Mumbai-Pune highway and other entry and exit points to Mumbai.

The IIJW is the third largest international exhibition in the world, which attracted participation from 800 companies around the world, 1,900 stalls were put up and over 2 lakh people visited the expo, since it opened Aug 19.