Suspecting that Shekhar Pawar, the shop owner, wanted to claim insurance money by showing a theft, the police are probing the fraud angle. They found gaping holes in Pawar’s story about the theft, which did not match with other witnesses’ accounts. The police are now trying to verify the complainant’s credentials to check whether he has any previous record of false complaints. Pawar now faces prosecution for filing a false complaint.

According to the complaint filed by him, a gang of thieves broke into his store, Yash Jewellers, in Munjmahoda on Saturday afternoon by making two holes in the walls of the shop and fled with gold jewellery worth lakhs.

During investigations, Vadodara Joint Commissioner of Police Pravin Sinha said, they found Pawar had hastily packed some jewellery items and sent it away with an aide on a motorcycle. “We managed to track down the person and raided his house. We found the jewellery there. When we confronted Pawar about this, he confessed to the crime,” Sinha said.

Sinha said Pawar had no official record of the stolen valuables. The JCP said Pawar owned jewellery stores in Padra and Maharashtra previously. The police are checking whether he had lodged similar theft complaints there.