A 34-year-old has been arrested for allegedly stealing 12.5kg of gold and silver-plated jewellery and ?15 lakh from a jewellery office in a commercial building at Dadar.

After scanning 140 CCTV cameras from Lower Parel area to Panvel, Dadar police arrested the accused, Balwant Sudama Gupta. He lives in Panvel with his wife and in-laws. During interrogation, police found that Gupta had allegedly stolen ?5 lakh using a similar modus operandi in November last year and was wanted in the case.

Gupta is an electrician by profession and lost his job during the lockdown and required money for his father’s treatment who is suffering from cancer, said a police officer.

According to the police, Gupta visited the building, Naman Midtown, at Prabhadevi in Dadar around a month ago for job-related work. While walking in the building, he noticed a jewellery office on the 14th floor and assumed that he could steal gold ornaments from there. He then checked the surrounding area of the floor for ascertaining how he could enter the office and returned home, said deputy commissioner of police Pranay Ashok of zone 5.

On January 29, Gupta entered the building wearing a burkha and directly went to the 17th floor by lift. He then climbed down to the 14th floor through the duct area and after removing the toilet window, entered the office.

He broke open the showcase and removed the jewellery. He kept the stolen booty in a backpack and fled. He did not remove the burkha till Panvel, said a police officer part of the investigating team.

“The accused even took the CCTV DVR from the office so that no one could identify him. We scanned through footage across Dadar, Matunga, Sion and Kurla. Later, he was found boarding a Kurla-Panvel train. After questioning several people, he was identified and was brought to the police station,” added Ashok.