Jewel thief in Bihar jail behind spate of heists?

What started as a routine investigation into the robbery at a Reliance Jewellery story in Dehradun on November 9- it was solved promptly with arrests the same month has pointed to the existence of a gang that focuses almost exclusively on gold and jewellery thefts, and which is run from the Beur jail in Bihar.

- Avinash Kumar, Amit Bathla

Over the past five years, police say, the gang has been involved in the theft of at least 180kg of gold across five Hindi heartland states.

Police have identified the mastermind as Subodh Kumar Singh alias Dilip Singh, who was bitten by the gold bug; his gang, of around 70, mostly from Bihar, has been operating since 2018, they add.

A senior Bihar police official who asked not to be named, said Singh, a resident of Chistipur village in Bihar's Nalanda district, around 52km southeast of Patna, was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) in January 2018 with 15kg of gold - the takings from a heist in a jewellery store in Rupaspur police station area in Patna district and was sent to Beur central jail, where he remains to the day as an undertrial. Police officers said charge sheets have been filed against Singh in six cases under sections of the Arms Act, for murder, robbery, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and the Bihar Prison Act. "The cases against him are being heard in local courts," said a police officer.

From jail, the officer added, Singh has managed to run his gang; Dehradun senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ajai Singh said that Subodh's gang has previously hit a Reliance Jewellery store in Raiganj, West Bengal; Manappuram Gold outlets in Katni (Madhya Pradesh), Nagpur (Maharashtra), Udaipur (Rajasthan); and an Axis Bank branch in Bhiwadi, Haryana.