'Dhoom'-inspired thieves steal shawls worth crores, but nabbed after blunder
Hrithik Roshan in 'Dhoom 2' seems to have made major fans, and not in a good way. Two cousins, one of whom claims to be inspired by the movie, wove an intricate plan to steal antique shawls worth crores from a Delhi Museum. They did it successfully too, but were caught after a careless blunder. Here's how things went down.
Vinay spent months planning the crime
Vinay Parmar, pretending to be a researcher, approached the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum. He then chose the vintage Kashmiri Pashmina shawls as his subject of "research". Over the months, he visited the museum several times. The 16 shawls he had marked were bought from Kashmir during 1959-1967 and are now worth over Rs. 2cr. Vinay had enlisted his cousin Tarun for the job.
He even tried out dummy runs before the heist
The reconnaissance was thorough: to examine the CCTV cameras, a week before the crime, Vinay hid in the museum after the visitors had left. After 1.5hrs, he raised an alarm. When staff members rescued him, he said he had been signaling to the CCTV cameras. He then discovered they didn't work. He also noticed a basement was open and was safe to hide.
They made away with 16 shawls worth Rs. 2cr
On October 29, the cousins visited the museum. Tarun hid in the basement till the visitors left and the museum was locked. He then collected the marked shawls (Vinay had identified them for him before) and broke out through a window. They chose a Sunday as the museum remains closed on Mondays. Staff eventually discovered the theft on Tuesday, October 31.
But one mistake broke their luck
The cousins fled for Kolkata, where Vinay's in-laws live, with 15 shawls; they left one with an antique dealer in Delhi, likely as a sample. Unfortunately for Vinay, he re-inserted the SIM he had arranged for the robbery and then switched off. He later inserted another SIM into the same device. Police tracked his location and nabbed both of them and the Delhi dealer.
