Two men looted gold ornaments worth around ₹10 lakh from a jewellery shop in Shivmandir, on the southern outskirts of Siliguri, on Monday.
The shop belongs to Haripada Sarkar, who invested his entire savings into his business.
“I did not build a house and put everything into this shop. Now I am ruined after losing ten gold chains in a matter of seconds,” Sarkar said.
A police source said that a man entered the shop looking to buy a pendant.
“After rejecting several pendants, he asked for gold chains. Sarkar obliged and began showing him one piece after another. Within minutes, a second youth entered the shop and joined the conversation, asking questions about the weight and price of the chains. As Sarkar engaged with him, the first youth grabbed 10 chains from the counter and left the shop. The second man immediately followed him. They mounted a motorbike waiting outside and sped away,” a police source said.
Sarkar only discovered that the chains had been taken when he was packing up the jewellery he had taken out. He immediately called the police, and a team from Matigara police station rushed to the spot.
A neighbouring shopkeeper noticed the duo rushing and suspected something amiss, but the duo had escaped by then.
Preliminary estimates placed the value of the stolen ornaments around ₹10 lakh, said a source.
The daring robbery has rattled the local community.
“We never realised until later that it was a robbery. It was only when Haripada began shouting that we learned a crime had been committed. Such things happen because the police are not maintaining proper vigil,” said Gautam Pal, a local trader.
This heist is the latest in a series of jewelry shop burglaries in and around Siliguri. In June, a daylight robbery took place in the heart of the city when armed thieves looted a jewellery showroom.
Last month, another jewelry shop was burgled in Matigara.
The police have begun scanning CCTV footage from the market and the surrounding areas.
“We have obtained CCTV footage. Every lead is being checked thoroughly. Our officers are also talking to the jeweller and some others to gather more information about the heist,” said Biswa Chand Thakur, a deputy commissioner of Siliguri metropolitan police.