The Chennai police have arrested two former employees of a jewellery shop in Sowcarpet for allegedly stealing gold ornaments worth over a kilogram over the past one year.

The shop owner, Jaish Jain, 29, of Veerappan Street, Sowcarpet, lodged a complaint with the Elephant Gate police after he found nearly 1,200 grams of jewellery missing during a stock check in August. Based on the complaint, the police launched an investigation. They found that two persons, who worked at the shop and are originally from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, had been pilfering small quantities of gold jewellery for more than a year and selling them. The police arrested the duo.

The suspects were identified as Gunakanti Kranthi, 26, of Nalgonda district, Telangana, and ‘Eaga’ Manikandan, 23, of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh; both of them were residing in Seven Wells. The police recovered three gold chains weighing 75 g, a bracelet, a ring, three mobile phones including an iPhone, and ₹20,000 in cash from them.