Burglars strike at fashion designer's store in Peddar Road

Two sarees worth Rs one lakh each, three branded Ferrari watches, cash, and an iPad were burgled from acclaimed fashion designer Kaushik Shrimanker's Peddar Road store Oraios on Tuesday night. The burglars entered the store with a duplicate key, and police believe they expected to find money. However, with only Rs 5,000 petty cash in the counter, they made away with the expensive goods.

Looted: (below) A similar looking designer saree was burgled from Kaushik Shrimanker's Oraios showroom in Peddar Road on Tuesday night.u00a0Pic/Datta Kumbhar

"Swarovski and French Chantilly (names of the sarees that were stolen) take two months to weave. They have also stolen three expensive watches worth Rs 90,000, and an iPad costing Rs 30,000," said Shrimanker.

Shrimanker, however, is thanking his stars as the miscreants fled with only two sarees from his latest collection. "The entire collection in the store is valued at around Rs 60 lakh. They [burglars] didn't know the worth of my collection, else they would have taken that as well," said Kaushik Shrimanker. "I would have lost my entire wedding season collection, which would have been a major loss," said Shrimanker.

Pradip Lonandkar, senior PI with Gamdevi police station, said, "The shop had no CCTV cameras, and it will be difficult to trace the culprits, as there is hardly any evidence. We're awaiting the finger print report to ascertain how many people entered the shop."

Yesterday morning, Dinesh Chheda, owner of a grocery shop close to Oraios noticed that the shutter of Shrimanker's store was slightly lifted. Suspecting foul play, Chheda called up Shrimanker on his mobile phone and the latter rushed to inspect his shop. "Since I know they don't open so early, I peeped inside but there was no one inside the showroom. The store looked like it was ransacked," said Chheda.

As Shrimanker reached the store, he realised that his shop had been burgled. Shrimanker registered a case of theft at Gamdevi police station, after which cops detained four local suspected housebreakers, who have previous cases registered against them.

Recurring thefts
As per the police records, burglars have previously targeted at least four fashion stores in the Peddar Road vicinity in a span of two years. Police suspect that accused arrived in a tempo, and entered the store with a duplicate key.

Celebrity designer
Shrimanker has completed his fashion-designing course from London 20 years ago and has been designing costumes for Bollywood celebrities since the last 15 years. He is also a mentor and teaches fashion designing at B D Somani Institute of Art and Fashion Technology, Cuffe Parade. He has designed costumes for ‘Indian Idol' host and singer Kailash Kher and Anu Malik, ‘Bollywood Ka Badshah' host Boman Irani, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (for an ad), Nach Baliye host Hussain Kuwajerwala, singer Babul Supriyo and many industrialists. u00a0