Now Reading: Rs 4 lakh gold chain stolen during Bengaluru Varamahalakshmi rush
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Rs 4 lakh gold chain stolen during Bengaluru Varamahalakshmi rush
An Ayurvedic doctor lost a 29-gram gold chain worth over Rs 4 lakh during the Varamahalakshmi festival rush at Bengaluru's KR Market on Tuesday. R Karuna Shree, a Basaveshwaranagar resident, had gone to buy flowers and puja items around 1pm when she felt someone touch her neck at a jasmine stall. She screamed and turned, but the chain was gone by the time she checked again upstairs while buying betel leaves.
Karuna, who has shopped alone in the area for 10 years, filed a complaint at City Market police station. The chain held sentimental value as she bought it by giving tuitions during a period of financial hardship. A senior police officer said patrolling is difficult because thousands of people crowd KR Market and Chickpet for shopping. A case has been registered under BNS Section 303 (theft), and police are trying to identify the culprits.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Gold chain thefts spike in Bengaluru during festival weeks, when KR Market and Chickpet see lakhs of shoppers daily and police patrols are thinned by sheer footfall. The Basaveshwaranagar victim's loss, Rs 4 lakh for 29 grams, is close to the current retail rate, so the chain was almost certainly being sold for immediate cash by the thieves. Gold is a near-cash asset in informal markets, making these snatchings hard to trace. City Market police will lean on CCTV from the Sri Krishna Rajendra Market Complex, but with only a BNS Section 303 case registered so far, arrests typically take weeks unless the same gang is caught in a repeat attempt at the same stall cluster.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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