Mumbai: The crime branch has arrested two employees of a jewellery shop who entered into a conspiracy and stole gold ornaments worth Rs 72 lakh, replacing the ornaments with imitation ornaments at the Dubai-based jewellery firm.When the employer lodged a police complaint, the duo called up the employer from Dubai and issued threats that more gold would disappear from his shop and that they would kill him if he failed to pay Rs 50 lakh extortion money.The police on Monday arrested the two employees, Subroto Burman and Ajay Pathar, on charges of theft, threat and extortion. Both were produced before a court, which remanded them in police custody.The complainant is Devendra Dhanak, the executive manager at Kanz jewellery in Dubai’s Deira Gold Souk. The firm has 13 branches in Dubai. The company had in 2017 engaged Subrato Barman as sales in-charge and Ajay Pathar as cashier.The company discovered the alleged fraud in June 2026 after suspicious damaged and altered gold was examined using a carat-meter. Of around 675 grams checked, 386 grams was allegedly found to be fake. A subsequent stock verification reportedly revealed another 84.33 grams of fake gold. During the course of internal investigation it transpired that Burman would take genuine gold from the shop and sell it to the cashier as old gold. He would allegedly replace it with fake gold of the same weight and show the fake pieces as damaged or altered stock. The proceeds were allegedly transferred to India through Pathar.The company subsequently lodged a complaint in Dubai. After the complainant came to Mumbai, he alleged that the accused threatened him over the phone on September 28 and demanded Rs 50 lakh, threatening to have another kilogram of gold stolen if the money was not paid. During further investigations it transpired that the accused would make a lookalike jewellery of brass or other metals and replace genuine jewellery with these. In all the two stole gold worth Rs 72 lakh. Burman, who hails from West Bengal, had arrived in India and was staying in a Naxalite area thinking that police will not go there.
