The blazing neon signs of Patni Jewellers, located at the main Irla junction off S V Road in Andheri, have stopped flashing for over a month. The shop, jointly owned by Madanlal Patni and Jayant Patni, has been locked since the beginning of August, giving jitters to residents of the Juhu-Vile Parle area, who have invested lakhs of rupees with Patni jewellers for gold ornaments and other jewellery.

Some of the customers went to the Patnis' residence at Bhavana Apartments, Borivli, where the family owns two storeys, but they found the place locked.The worried customers are now rushing to Juhu police station for help.

However, discreet inquires made by police with some of Patnis' distant relatives have revealed that the family has gone out of station.

Deputy commissioner of police(zone-VII) K L Prasad told Express Newsline: ``We have received over five complaints so far, which we are verifying. We are seeking legal opinion on the subject and will proceed after registering the First Information Report (FIR).''

With the motive behind Patni's disappearance still unknown to the police, and his culpability yet to be established, the police haven't registered any case thus far.

Complaints received by the Juhu police put the amount involved in the region of Rs 3 to 5 lakh, but customers have expressed apprehensions that Patni may have escaped with ornaments and cash worth Rs 2.5 crore, a police officer said.

Since Patni had originally come to the city from Nairobi in Kenya and still has relatives in Nairobi, customers fear the jeweller may have left Mumbai with his family for good.

The case bears a striking resemblance to that of jeweller Jagdish Pednekar, who along with his wife and daughter disappeared with ornaments and cash worth Rs 1.56 crores on January 1 this year.They were later found dead in a Madhya Pradesh hotel. However, now their relatives have claimed that the bodies were wrongly identified.