A man who bought ornaments from a jewellery store’s outlet in Bowbazar and paid by a cheque that was later dishonoured has been arrested after being tracked through electronic surveillance.

The arrested man was identified as Vijayant Kumar Singh, 29.

On July 3, Singh visited the store and selected three items — a gold chain, a gold bangle and a silver coin — with a total value of ₹13.86 lakh.

“He returned to the store on July 8 with a bank statement as proof of his financial condition and paid for the items by a cheque. A few days later, the cheque was dishonoured,” said a Kolkata Police officer. The bank statement, too, was fake.

The store reported the matter Muchipara police station soon after.

The first step was to identify of the person. “We only had his photograph from the store’s CCTV footage. An extensive search was conducted in nearby places and hotels. His photograph was eventually identified at one of the hotels, but by then, he had already left,” said an officer.

The phone number that Singh had provided at the store was found switched off.

From the hotel, the police found that he was from Ranchi in Jharkhand and had come to Calcutta a week before he went to the store.

The police came across on a new phone number and his Aadhaar card details at the hotel. “His location was tracked and he was arrested from a restaurant in Salt Lake on July 11,” said an officer.

Based on his statement, the police raided a hotel in Park Circus recovered the stolen items.