Pistol on my face, didn’t want to risk my life: Jewel shop owner

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
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“He was pointing a pistol at my face, I couldn’t even move. I forgot about the jewellery and did what he asked me to do,” said Vinod Verma, one of the partners of Forever Diamonds, Sector 17-C, where a Rs 14 crore daylight robbery at gunpoint was reported today.
Verma, who was in a state of shock, said the accused decently entered the showroom and asked for the diamond ring they had ordered. “We couldn’t make out what their intentionswas,” he said.
The victim said as his brother went inside the safe room, one of the accused pointed a pistol at him and told him not to move or else he would shoot him.
“I was shocked and didn’t move. Soon, the accused took me inside the safe room where my brother and I were locked, ” said Vinod.
Vinod said he didn’t want to risk his life for jewellery. “We waited in the safe room for a few minutes to ensure that the accused had left as we didn’t want them to fire at us,” he said. Police teams, including a team of the area police, crime branch and operations cell, and a team of the CFSL reached the spot. Fingerprints of the robbers were lifted by the CFSL team.
Police teams coducted a survey of the entire area to check where CCTV cameras were installed. The police collected footage of cameras installed in neighbouring SCOs to get a lead in the case.
 

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Three people, including a woman, robbed a jeweller’s store of diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 14 crore at gunpoint in the busy Sector 17 here on Sunday afternoon.

The suspects — all three in mid-twenties — entered the shop, Forever Diamonds, posing as customers.
Store owners Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma besides an employee, identified as Ajay, were in the shop when the three entered the store.
One of them suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Vinod. His accomplice asked Rajnish to hand over all the cash and jewellery kept in the safe.
They remained in the shop for half-an-hour before fleeing with diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 14 crore besides Rs 10 lakh in cash.
The store security guard was reportedly not around when the incident occurred.
The suspects — who spoke in Punjabi and English — also took along the DVR that contained images of the incident, recorded by the CCTV camera installed in the store.
The police are now scanning images of cameras installed in the neighbouring SCOs to get a lead into the case.
Sources claimed that being Sunday, jewellery was not displayed on the counters like other days.
One suspect had visited the showroom on Saturday and had ordered a diamond ring which was to be delivered today.
The police have collected the dump data of mobile phones of the area to verify the mobile numbers that were active at the time of the incident.
 

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
The two owners of Forever Diamonds, a jewellery store in Sector 17 where a Rs 14 crore heist took place on May 1, were questioned by the Chandigarh Police at the operations cell, Sector 26, throughout the day today.
They were asked to switch off their mobiles during the questioning, which continued till late in the evening.
Three robbers, including a woman, all believed to be in their mid-twenties, had robbed the jewellery store at gunpoint. The robbers also took the DVR along, in which the CCTV footage was recorded.
While several teams are exploring various angles and also scrutinising the dump data, one of the teams of the operations cell today questioned the store owners, Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma.
Their family members, however, raised objections over the day-long grilling by the police.
Vinod said they were willing to cooperate with the police as it was part of the investigation. The glass case behind which the DVR was kept had already been removed, which has raised suspicion. The investigation has revealed that the glass case was removed a few days before the robbery after the DVR started making a loud noise. The glass was not fixed back.
Sources said there was a strong suspicion that the robbers knew where the DVR was kept, which would have been possible only if some insider provided them information about it.
 
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