Tanishq employee replaces diamonds with fakes, arrested

Mumbai: The Marine Drive police arrested an employee of a renowned jewellery outlet in south Mumbai for replaced diamond-studded ornaments worth Rs 12 lakh with fakes. The accused had replaced two diamonds before July, which the owner noticed, and a case was registered based on the information.

The arrested accused has been identified as Rikesh Soni (29), who was employed with the Tanishq showroom located near Brabourne Stadium, the police said. According to police in the first incident Soni had allegedly stolen a 1.25-carat diamond worth Rs 8.67 lakh from the inventory and replaced it with a fake.

The investigations revealed that the theft took place in the first half of the year after which Soni laid low in order to avoid suspicion. Later, after few weeks, Soni again replaced another diamond of 0.90-carat diamond worth Rs 4.25 lakh with a fake one. The act came to the notice of the management during a cross checking of the inventory.

Subsequently, with the help of the CCTV camera footage, it was found that Soni had stolen the diamonds and fled. On receiving the complaint of Javed Khan, a senior employee in the store, a case was registered with the Marine Drive police station on Saturday. Following preliminary investigation, the police arrested Soni.

He has been booked for theft and criminal breach of trust and further investigation is underway. He has been remanded in police custody.

In April, an unidentified man had walked inside the same showroom and stole gold worth Rs 2.6 lakh. A case was filed after the items were found to be missing. The store management came to know about the misplacement of its 64.48-gram gold chain while they were shutting for the day.