The broken shutter of the jewellery shop at Nayapalli. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 28: Goons burgled a jewellery shop at BDA market complex in Nilakanth Nagar in front of Nayapalli’s Deborai College in the wee hours today and decamped with gold and silver ornaments worth more than Rs 5 lakh.

The shop’s owner, Sudhir Kumar Sahu, said he came to know about the theft from a car driver who worked in the area while he was on his morning walk. “The driver asked me whether I had opened the shop early in the morning. After I got the information of opening of my shop, I ran to my shop and found its shutter opened,” said Sahu, adding that he immediately informed Nayapalli police.

The police rushed to the spot along with a forensic expert team who collected fingerprints from the spot. The police said the preliminary enquiry revealed that the burglars entered into the shop by breaking open the front gate and cutting the shutter.

Sahu said he had bolted the shop’s front gate, along with the shutter, with seven locks.

“The thieves have broken all the locks of the front gate and have cut the shutter with the help of gas cutters. They have then taken away a small locker that contained 150 grams of gold and around 500 grams of silver. I had not kept any cash in the shop,” said Sahu.

Sahu had left his shop around 9pm on Sunday. Local people said the road remained busy till 11.30pm. The police believe that the thieves have perpetrated the burglary between 1 and 3am.

The police have launched a manhunt to arrest the persons involved in this case.

“We are investigating into it. We are waiting for the forensic report. We hope to arrest the culprits soon,” said a police officer.