Jamshedpur, Nov. 27: Suspecting foul play in the burglary at a mobile phone shop in Mango, police have initiated a probe into the case.

Cellphones worth Rs 9 lakh has been stolen from the Mobile Store.

The shutter lock of the shop was intact as was the boxes of the new handsets. The sleuths are suspecting foul play as the store was insured and there have dealt with several fake cases like this in the steel city.

Udita Ghosh, the in charge of the Mango branch of Mobile Store, opened the shutter of the shop at 9am. She found out that a heap of empty cartons on the floor and the cupboard was empty. She informed the other staff members and the police was alarmed.

“The burglars have decamped with 213 handsets of different brands — Nokia, Samsung and LG. They have also taken Rs 14,000 from the cash box that I kept yesterday,” said Udita.

But she said she was surprised to find that 10 cellphones that were kept in one of the shelves were intact, whereas the cellphone sets kept inside the cupboard were stolen.

There are four staff including Udita and another lady staff, but none of them could make out how anyone can enter the shop without tampering with the shutter lock.

The Mobile Store is located on Mango-Pardih Road at Mango Chowk.

There are rows of shops and residence on either side of the road where the burglary took place. The night-watchman who keeps vigil of the place said he did not see or hear anything. Ashwini Agrawal, a shopkeeper in the neighbourhood, said no one knew got to know about the incident.

“The watchman sits on the veranda of the same building which houses the Mobile Store but he was not aware of the burglary,” said Agrawal.

The staff of the stores said there was a close circuit television (CCTV) camera inside the store but the camera was not functioning for the past one week.

East Singhbhum superintendent of police Naveen Kumar Singh said there are several points which make them believe it is a got-up case.

“How can anyone enter a shop without tampering with the shutter lock? The thieves must have got the information that the CCTVs were not working and they have times the burglary at this time. This also points to the fact that an insider was involved in the case,” said the SP. He said a team of forensic experts is investigating the case by following scientific methods to establish the facts.