Patna: Two women, posing as prospective buyers, stole expensive blue sapphire gemstones popularly known as Neelam from a jewellery shop at the upscale Dakbungalow roundabout.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening, but the matter came to light when the salesmen checked the stock. The incident occurred at Hira Panna jewelers. However, the shop owners have not lodged any formal complaint in this connection.

Alok Kumar, a salesman at the shop, said: "On Tuesday evening around 7.30pm, two women posing as prospective buyers entered the shop. The two women aged around 50 and 25 years, respectively, appeared to mother and daughter, went through various jewellery items. The women purchased a diamond nose pin priced at Rs 5,000, but checked out various gold, diamond and gemstone ornaments."

As it was evening and the shop was full of customers, the salesmen were busy attending to other customers too. The two women entered the shop around 7.30pm and stayed there till 7.52pm. The theft was detected in the evening when the salesmen checked the stocks.

On checking the stocks, the shop authorities came to know that one of the blue sapphire gemstone priced at around Rs 1 lakh was missing from the stock.

The shop authorities immediately checked the CCTV footage. On checking the footage, they came to know that two women who had purchased a gold pin were looking at the gemstone. A staff of the shop said: "In the CCTV footage, we saw one of the women pick up a gemstone and hiding it in her bun. The woman, after hiding the gemstone, went to the counter and paid the bill for the nose pin they had purchased." The salesman claimed that the two women appeared to be from middle-class families.

The Hira Panna authorities have provided the CCTV footage to the police. Rama Shankar Singh, the station house officer of Kotwali police station, said: "The Hira Panna authorities have provided the CCTV footage, but they have not registered any formal complaint."