JAIPUR: The soaring prices of onion has not only affected the common man, it has also compelled the burglars to change their priorities. Tomatoes which are selling at Rs 80 to Rs 100 per kg in retail, are now given bigger importance than gold or silver for the burglars. At Sabzi Mandi, near Kotwali police station in Dausa, burglars decamped with close to 75 kg of tomatoes from various vegetables shops.

The vegetable vendors as per practice came to open their shops on Thursday morning at 6 am and were taken aback when they saw the iron kiosks broken. Though stunned by the burglary, they were amused when realised that the burglars also decamped with tomatoes and electronic weighing machines. As many as 21 shops had broken locks.

"As a matter of practice, we leave coins in our cash boxes but they were not touched. Roughly 75 kg of tomatoes were stolen. We have registered a complaint after the retailers complained and are investigating the matter," said an investigative officer of the Kotwali police station.

The market is hardly a few meters away from Kotwali police station.

"We have unloaded the fresh vegetables including tomatoes and onions on Wednesday night and after locking the kiosks and shops, we left at 1 in the morning on Thursday. The burglars left all other vegetables other than tomatoes," said Radheyshyam, a shopkeeper at the Dausa mandi and was one of the victim of the burglary.

Initially, when the shopkeepers approached the nearby Kotwali police station to complain about the matter, policemen also laughed at the development.

"These were Nasik produced tomatoes which are priced nearly Rs 70 in the wholesale and goes for Rs 90-100 in the retail," said Balwant Singh, one of the shopkeepers.

It may be recalled that when prices of onions touched Rs 100 a kilo, last year, three armed men stopped a onion-laden truck and decamped with it from Shahpura village, near Jaipur.

