Stolen Rs 15cr gem in switchboard, Kolkata judge sees ‘Feluda’ twist | Kolkata News – Times of India
Even the judge, while handing the gem to its owner last week, couldn’t resist comparing it to the Feluda classic ‘Joy Baba Felunath’.
Apologies for the spoiler, but in the Satyajit Ray classic, the precious item was hidden inside the mouth of a Durga idol’s lion. Here, the diamond, presently valued at around Rs 15 crore, was hidden by the robber inside a switchboard under a staircase.
The crime happened in 2002, when south Kolkata resident Pranab Kumar Roy, the diamond’s owner, was looking for a valuer for it. In June that year, Indrajit Tapadar, a diamond broker, reached Roy’s house with a valuer. Roy later said that he suspected the duo from the way they handled the diamond, set on a gold ring, and asked them to hand it over to him. At that point, according to Roy, Tapadar took out a pistol and gave the diamond to the other person. Roy got into a scuffle with Tapadar, during which the latter’s companion jumped on Roy, pinning him to the ground. After that, the duo fled with the diamond, Roy had told the police.
Diamond kept inside switchboard cavity
The police, who were investigating the case, were quick in finding out where Indrajit Tapadar, who was accused of robbing the Golconda diamond, lived. But even though they instinctively felt that the stone was at his house, they simply could not find it even after several searches.
Finally, just as even the most dogged among them were just about to give up, they found the stone, carefully tucked away inside the switchboard cavity near a meter box under a staircase. The cops had passed that spot every time while going in to search, but no one thought of looking there.
The manner in which it all unfolded and the diamond finally recovered, prompted judge Ananda Sankar Mukhopadhyay to find similarities with ‘Joy Baba Felunath’. Even Tapadar’s lawyer claimed that the recovery of the diamond was shrouded in mystery.
The trial court allowed Pranab Kumar Roy to keep the diamond in his custody on condition that he could not alter the nature and character of it. Roy also had to furnish a bond of Rs 2 crore with the court. The trial court later found Tapadar guilty and sent him to two years’ imprisonment, which he appealed. The case continued, and a number of petitions were filed by the accused. The city sessions court, in its order last week, upheld the lower court’s order and found Tapadar guilty.
A 32-carat Golconda diamond is a rare piece and a premium diamond, said Shubadip Roy, a diamond connoisseur and a designated partner of Bengal Jewellery. “Golconda is known to be one of the oldest mines in the world. Iconic diamonds like the Koh-i-Noor and the Shah Jahan diamond are of Golconda origin,” he said.
