The cupboard that was broken. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Jan. 12: Criminals robbed goods worth over Rs 40 lakh on Tuesday night.

The police expressed suspicion that the whole thing may be staged theft, for a claim of insurance.

Criminals broke into Laxmi Enterprises, located at the busy Kankerbagh Mor under Kankerbagh police station.

The shop deals with a shop selling and distributing cell phones, digital cameras and camcorders.

The criminals also broke through a steel cupboard and took away cash worth Rs 1.5 lakh before fleeing.

The police were quiet about the matter all through the morning today with the matter opening up this evening. The shop is located on the second floor of a building with the showroom of Bombay Dyeing on the ground floor. Manoj Kumar, the owner of the Laxmi Enterprises said that he had closed his shop at around 9am on Tuesday.

“I am an all Bihar distributor of Lava mobile phones besides also being a distributor of Samsung cameras and camcorders. Today morning around 10am, my manager came down to open the store to find the three locks of the shutter broken. He was shocked and he rushed in to find that the goods have been looted. As many as 400 mobile phone sets, 300 cameras and camcorders have been stolen besides cash worth Rs 1.5 lakh cash,” he said.

“The roof of the next building is very close and anyone can just cross over here without any problem. I have told the police that the thieves might have used it. Probably they were watching the shop being closed, after which they planned the attack. I request the police to look into the matter and hold investigations,” Manoj said.

The police said the matter was being investigated. Sujit Kumar, station house officer of the Kankerbagh police station said there could be a connivance of some of the staff in the whole incident.

“Police are investigating the matter from all angles. All the staff working there would be questioned. We will scan the background of all of them. Chances of the incident being a staged theft cannot be ruled out. The matter will also be investigated from the insurance angle,” the officer said.

Thefts in the state capital have become a common affair in the recent past. The police said incidents of theft increase during winter due to the low visibility. Patna SSP B.S. Meena had earlier requested the people going out of their homes to keep their lights on, as that could keep the thieves away.

On January 5, the police had arrested two men Govind Bind and his associate Jeetender Kumar from the Shastri Nagar police station and recovered more than 50 mobile sets, computer parts, cameras from their possession.