Around six persons broke into a jewellery store with a gas-cutter in the small hours on Wednesday and escaped into the night with ornaments worth at least Rs 1 crore.

Barely 400m away from the Gandhi Maidan police station, Kasturi Jewellers is on the ground floor of Purushottam Complex — a commercial-cum-residential complex in the Bakarganj area. It was broken into between 1am and 2am.

At least 25 people live on the complex’s first floor on rent. But no one got a whiff of the theft, which came to notice only around 6am when the owner was called up by one of the tenants.

Based on preliminary investigation — a forensic team and sniffer dogs have been put on the job — the police suspect an insider’s hand in the theft. The criminals had come armed with three gas cylinders, a gas-cutter and several tools to break open locks and iron almirahs. They seemed to know where the expensive ornaments were kept.

The shutter and the collapsible gate to the shop’s front entrance were avoided by the criminals. They chose to enter the shop through a side entrance, cutting the locks of Purushottam Complex’s collapsible gate to the store’s left.

An officer of Gandhi Maidan police station said: “The men cut through the store’s other entrance after entering the complex. They cut the locks of the collapsible gate and shutter with the gas-cutter to enter the shop. There were two iron almirahs in which all the expensive ornaments were kept. The almirahs were cut with the gas-cutter and the ornaments were wrapped up, before the criminals escaped through the same path they had entered.”

Senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said: “This is a well-planned and executed theft. The persons involved knew everything about the shop — they knew where the costly ornaments were kept. Seeing their preparations, it appears the criminals had observed the shop for a long time before coming up with a perfect plan to loot it,” he told The Telegraph.

The police found three cylinders, the gas-cutter and other tools in the shop. The shop has closed-circuit television cameras but when the police checked their footage, the devices were found defunct.

Storeowner Rishu Kumar said he got a call around 6am. “One of the men living on rent in the complex called me. He said the locks of my shop were broken and I rushed here. I don’t know how much I lost but they have easily taken away ornaments worth more than Rs 1.10 crore. I don’t know what to do,” he said.

The Gandhi Maidan police officer said: “The ground floor has several shops. Around 25 people live on rent on the first floor. The police are trying to find their whereabouts, identities and the work they do. Going by the criminals’ modus operandi, they easily took two hours to cut the locks, steal the jewellery and flee. But it is strange that none of the tenants heard anything.”