The Jayanagar police on Thursday arrested a 33-year-old goldsmith from Kolkata who was on the run with a gold bar weighing 1.3 kg that he had taken after promising his employer in Bengaluru that he would craft pieces of jewellery from it to be sold to customers.
According to the police, the accused, Amar Mohanty, who hails from Sitapur near Kolkata, sold the bar to construct a house in his hometown. A team led by Inspector U.R. Manjunath tracked him down to Sitapur and arrested him. “We were able to recover the bar that he had sold for approximately ₹50 lakh,” said the police.
Three months before he committed the crime, Mohanty started working with a jewellery store in Jayanagar 3rd Block. He would take gold bars to his rented house to craft pieces of jewellery.
“On January 1, he went to his house with 1.3 kg of gold bullion but did not return. After a few days, the owner of the shop, Manish Kumar, paid Mohanty a visit to enquire about the delay. The accused asked for a few more days off as he was ill,” said a police officer.
Trusting the designer, Mr. Manish agreed and returned home. But when Mohanty did not turn up, and he found the house empty, he realised he had been robbed. Based on a complaint filed on February 1, a police team tracked down Mohanty and arrested him.
