Remember that Rs 14 crore diamond robbery case in Chandigarh? Police says it was concocted

Here's the real story of Chandigarh's biggest-ever "heist" of Rs 14 crore at Forever Diamonds in Sector 17.

Chandigarh: In a new twist, police on Sunday claimed that Chandigarh's biggest-ever "heist" of Rs 14 crore at a jewellery shop located in the main commercial complex here was a story "concocted" by the store's owners.

According to police, the “heist” was planned to claim insurance amount.

The owners were booked on Saturday after "confessional statement" of the store manager.

Sector 17's Station House Officer Uday Pal Singh yesterday claimed that shop owners, Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma, had concocted the robbery story to claim insurance amount of Rs 10 crore.

"The manager of the Forever Diamonds in Sector 17 has disclosed in his statement that the shop owners Vinod and Rajnish had concocted the robbery story to claim insurance.

"Subsequently, we have booked both the owners for cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence," Singh said.

He further said that on the basis of fresh evidence which has come to fore in the case, the police have removed sections of robbery from the FIR and added fresh sections like cheating and forgery.

Asked if the two owners had been arrested, the SHO said, "We had called them for investigations. But one of them said he was unwell and in hospital while the other one has suddenly gone somewhere. We will take next step as per law".

He said the police had recorded the statement of the manager Ajay.

The shop owners, Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma, had earlier told the police that they were at the shop along with an employee Ajay when the robbers arrived.

They had told the police they did not suspect anything when the accused came as one of them had ordered a diamond ring worth Rs 3 lakh a day before the robbery on April 30.

(With PTI inputs)