PESHAWAR: The capital city police on Monday claimed to have solved a gold heist issue by arresting three burglars who turned out to be the employees of the gold shop, where the burglary took place.

The incident had taken place on Jan 31 when unidentified burglars had allegedly taken away about 25 kilogramme of gold from the shop located in the limits of the west cantonment police station.

SSP operations Abbas Majeed Marwat told Dawn that police had arrested three employees of the shop, including its manager, and recovered the gold and Rs330,000 from them. The accused were identified as Adeel Ali, Irfanullah and Mohammad Ali.

Mr Marwat said the accused had confessed to the crime during investigation, adding as the owner was abroad the accused had been pilfering gold for past some years.

He said usually the accused sold 15 tola necklaces in the market and replaced it with the one containing only a tola of gold.

The police officer said as the owner had decided to sell his business the fear of being caught prompted the employees to stage the burglary incident. He said the accused invested in property and other businesses.

SP cantonment circle Kashif Zulfiqar told Dawn the accused had been pilfering the gold and selling it in small quantities, saying the owner`s claim that 25 kilogramme of gold had been stolen in one go was not correct.