Moloya and Nishita Goswami at the inauguration of a jewellery showroom. File picture

Aug. 5: The arrest of five jewel thieves today led police to issue an alert to shopowners that more may be lurking in the city.

City police, who arrested five persons involved in various jewellery theft cases on Saturday, have found evidence of a thriving racket.

“Jalaluddin Ahmed, one of the key persons behind the racket, has also been arrested from Golaghat. Ahmed and his wife Rubi Begum were involved in various cases of jewellery theft and controlled the racket in the city from Golaghat.

According to the police, four women, Rubi Begum, Nasima Begum, Bina Bora and Kalpana Gogoi came to the city on Friday and stole jewellery worth nearly Rs 1 lakh from a shop in Fancy Bazar.

However, the closed circuit camera installed inside the shop gave them away.

“When the women returned again on Saturday morning, the salesmen at the shop could immediately identify them with the help of the footage from the cameras and informed the police. The police reached the spot and arrested them. On the basis of their confession, the police could also arrest Ahmed in Golaghat, late on Saturday evening,” a police official said.

He said the gang used to go jewellery shops and keep the salesmen busy, asking them to show various designs of jewellery and with other queries.

“While the salesmen wrote receipts or brought other sets of jewellery, the women did the stealing,” the police officer said.

Though Ahmed claimed that he was in the army and took voluntary retirement in 1997, the police is verifying his claim.

The chief judicial magistrate court, Kamrup, today remanded the five accused in four days’ police custody.

The police have registered a case under section 379 of IPC.

Ahmed and his wife also confessed to the police during interrogation that while some of the gang members caused a commotion, distracting both shoppers and salesmen, others, usually the women, quietly stole pieces of jewellery and made a quick getaway.