LAHORE: A known jeweller allegedly defrauded dozens of fellow jewellers and made off with their ornaments apparently worth over Rs1 billion.

The crime surfaced when one of the affectees Ahmad Siddiqui approached the police and alleged that he had handed over gold ornaments worth over Rs25 million to suspect Waseem Akhtar, former president of Ichhra jewellers association.

He said the suspect had been running Madina Jewellers for the last 35 years or so and won the trust of the area jewellers.

Consequently, Mr Ahmad said, like him, dozens of Ichhra market jewellers had deposited with his lockers ornaments worth over hundreds of millions of rupees.

Some 10 days back, he said he visited the shop of Waseem Akhtar to get his jewellery back.

He made an excuse saying his close relative had died in Karachi and he would return it within a couple of days.

He, however, didn’t open his shop for many days.

Mr Ahmad said he visited his Johar Town residence where his neighbours told him that Waseem had sold out his house and disappeared suddenly keeping all of them in the dark about his next destination.

He said he rushed back to the Ichhra market and alerted all the jewellers who gathered there and involved the association members.

During the initial inquiry, it transpired that Waseem had taken away gold ornaments of dozens of local shopkeepers.

The victim told the police that the suspect committed a criminal breach of trust, depriving dozens of jewellers of their valuables.

The victims claimed it seems that the suspect made off with jewellery worth over Rs1bn.

Lahore Operations DIG Faisal Kamaran said the police obtained some CCTV footages of the suspect which captured him carrying shopping bags probably containing ornaments.

“We are tracking down the suspect through the safe city and other security cameras installed in and outside the market besides those marked near his Johar Town residence,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2025