A case of alleged theft has been registered after a rented pair of diamond-studded earrings worth Rs 1.35 crore went missing during filmmaker and fashion stylist Rhea Kapoor's trip to New York for a fashion event, police said on Saturday.

According to a Sahar police official, celebrity makeup artist Savleen Singh (41), who has been associated with Kapoor for seven years, was carrying two pairs of high-value earrings hired from a Mumbai-based jeweller for use at the event.

Kapoor and her team had travelled to New York to attend the Met Gala. The jewellery, rented from Mehta Jewellers and Goenka Jewellers, was packed in two separate boxes and kept inside Singh's handbag, as per the complaint.

The team left Mumbai on an Emirates flight on April 27, travelling via Dubai before reaching John F Kennedy International Airport in New York on April 28, police said.

After checking into The Pierre hotel, Singh opened the jewellery boxes and found that they were empty, the official said, citing the complaint.

The missing items included an 18-carat emerald-stone diamond-studded gold earring set valued at Rs 66 lakh and a Zambian emerald-stone gold-bordered earring set worth Rs 69 lakh.

Following her return to Mumbai, Singh lodged a complaint with the Sahar Police, following which a First Information Report was registered against an unidentified person under Section 303(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for theft.

Police are examining the entire travel route to ascertain whether the theft took place at the Mumbai airport, during the flight, at the transit point in Dubai, or after the team's arrival in New York, officials said.

Further investigation is underway, they added.