AHMEDABAD: Gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 30 lakh was stolen from a locker of the IDBI bank’s Navrangpura branch. Interestingly, when the locker was opened with the help of a drill machine in presence of the owner, the bank officials found Rs 101 and an image of the Goddess Vaibhavi Laxmi.

The complainant, Trupti Mehta, 48, is a project manager with the environment department in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the US.

According to the FIR, Mehta has had the locker since 2016. “She had kept 14 gold jewellery articles and 22 silver articles in it before going to the US. In 2017, when she came back to India, she kept two gold bangles and a gold pendant of about 50g in it. At that time, all jewellery was still there,” said a police source.

Police said Mehta had kept about 600g of gold jewellery and 8kg of silver jewellery in the locker.

Mehta stated in her complaint that she came back from the US on January 1 this year and went to the bank on February 12. “Despite making several attempts to open the locker in presence of bank officials, she was unable to open it.

The bank requested her to come the next day so that they could break open the locker,” said a police official.

Mehta went to the bank the next day but the bank officials failed to open the locker with keys. Then it was decided to break open the locker.

Police have lodged a complaint under Sections 380 and 114 of the IPC, which means more than one person is involved in the burglary. “The thieves’ access to the locker room points towards the role of some insiders,” said inspector P B Desai of Navrangpura police station.

Mehta has stated in the FIR that while the bank employees were breaking open the locker with a drill, she saw scratch marks on the locker next to hers. “This means that someone had attempted to force open the locker,” said a police official.