Early this month, Home Minister Gopinath Munde held a meeting with senior police officials and a delegation of jewellers to take stock of the situation. But things haven't shown any signs of improving. At least three major robberies took place after the stock-taking meeting, the ministerial assurance notwithstanding.

Consistent attacks have proved police operations quite ineffective. As the president of the Wholesale Gold Merchants' Association (WGMA) Mahavir Prasad Lodha puts it, the lack of police security has made the jewellers look like `sitting ducks.' Indeed. ``The jewellers aren't equippedto face the onslaughts of the underworld, and the police too are reluctant to provide adequate cover,'' feels Lodha. ``We have been asked to arrange for our own security, hire guards and install safety devices. But such measures seldom work when it comes to facing hardened criminals,'' Lodha laments, adding that some gangsters have escaped with 10 kgs of gold in less than 15 minutes. The president of the Maharashtra Swarnakar Mahamandal (the state-level jewellers' federation) Vinodkumar Kachhara says the gold business will soon fall on bad days, if the trend continues. ``Now we will have sell gold from well-protected cages.''

The concern voiced by the two is justified, considering the similar sequence of events in all the recent robberies.

Eyewitnesses and police reports indicated the same gang is at work everywhere, and the attackers are in their early twenties, wielding handguns and choppers, wearing jeans, flaunting cellular phones and often travelling in new Maruti cars, all of which arecharacteristic marks of Mumbai's underworld.

Initially, it was suspected that the robberies were engineered by small-time employees in the jewellery shops. But the latest developments, especially the similar modus operandi, point to an inter-state gang operating from major cities in the country. There are reasons to believe that the stolen gold is not being sold in the city, especially since the police are keeping a strict vigil over the jewellers. The booty is likely to be smuggled out of Mumbai, to places like New Delhi and Chennai, which are known for gold trade.

The spate of robberies is also connected with the fall in real estate prices and the virtual collapse of the building industry. The building industry was a fertile ground for the underworld, fetching around Rs 300 crore annually. Therefore, claim Mumbai police, the gold booty comes in handy as a stop-gap arrangement. The financial market and other businesses aren't reaping rich returns, but the bullion market is bringing in a lot ofmoolah.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) K L Prasad says the jewellers are targetted because criminals find it easier to flee with the ready cash and booty, which is less cumbersome to carry than valuables like electronic goods. ``Police aren't solely responsible for the recent attacks on the shops. The jewellers also have to share the responsibility of safeguarding their premises,'' Prasad remarked. He's not off the mark. Come to think of it, can the police provide protection to 5,000 retail jewellery outlets and 10,000 small-time outlets? It would be physically impossible to post one guard/constable at every shop, leave aside patrol vans. The dilemma of city jewellers only shows how unsafe the city has become.

J Dey is a reporter with The Indian Express. He covers the crime beat.

Spiralling graph

May 19, 1998. Four armed men barged into a gold manufacturing unit at Shah and Nahar Industrial Estate, Lower Parel, threatened the employees with choppers, and escaped with abooty of nearly Rs 40 lakh.

May 4, 1998. Four men entered Prashant Jewellers, Ghatkopar, posing as customers around 5 pm. Once inside, they brandished handguns and threatened to shoot the salesmen. The attackers smashed the shop's window, grabbed the gold, jumped into a pick-up vehicle and escaped with gold worth Rs 50 lakh.

April 19, 1998. Jeweller Pradeep Jain was killed under the jurisdiction of D B Marg police station by the Shakeel gang.

March 30, 1998. Five men entered Giriraj Jewellers at Borivli as customers and looted gold valued at around Rs 94 lakh.