Goldsmith who stole 400 gm of gold nabbed

Chandigarh, September 12

A 35-year-old goldsmith, who had escaped with 400-gram gold worth about Rs 22 lakh, has been arrested by the UT police and the entire gold recovered from him.

The accused, identified as Sanjeet Mandal, was nabbed from West Bengal by a team, led by Inspector Neeraj Sarna, Mani Majra SHO.

During interrogation, it came to light that the accused had suffered a loss of about Rs 11 lakh while trading in Forex and stock market. Earlier, he had lost about Rs 8.50 lakh in gambling.

“The accused wanted to recover from the losses and pay his debts, for which he decided to steal the gold,” said a police official.

Manish Bansal, who owns a jewellery store in Mani Majra, had reported that he had given 168 grams of gold to the accused for making ornaments. On September 6, when the complainant went to get the jewellery, he found that the accused had fled.

The complainant discovered that the accused had escaped with a total of 400 grams of gold given to him by a few jewellers.

A case was registered at the Mani Majra police station.

The Master Technical Cell of the police provided vital leads to the investigating team, following which they went to West Bengal. “Sub-Inspector Manoranjan Nag and his team from the Bishnupur police station in Bankura district of West Bengal helped us nab the accused,” said a police official.