On 19 March 1987, a group posing as

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...

officers executed a fake raid on the

Opera House An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

branch of

Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Ltd. (TBZ) is a noted Indian jeweller and jewellery retail chain based in India. Established in 1864 by Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri in Zaveri Bazaar, the jewellery district of Mumbai, it was subsequently headed by his ...

& Sons Jewellers in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(present-day Mumbai),

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, India. The raid was led by an unknown man who had assembled the group by inviting the candidates for fake recruitment interview. The unknown man disappeared with the spoils of the raid. The case remains unsolved.

Heist

The person posing as Mon Singh or Mohan Singh had placed a classified advertisement in the 17 March 1987 issue of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'', asking for "Dynamic Graduates for Intelligence Officers Post and Security Officers Post". Applicants were told to report to the hotel Taj Intercontinental between 10 am and 5 pm the next day. He rented an office at Mittal Towers in

Nariman Point Nariman Point is a prominent downtown area of Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. Located on the southern tip of the Mumbai peninsula, at the end of the Mumbai's Marine Drive, Nariman Point houses some of India's prestigious business headquarters. B ...

to interview the candidates. Singh selected at least 26 candidates and asked them to report to the Taj the following day and were briefed about the 'mock raid' by Singh. On 19 March, they arrived at the Opera House branch of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri & Sons Jewellers around 2:15 pm. Singh introduced himself to the owner, Pratap Zaveri, and produced a '

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize Police, law enforcement officers to conduct a Search and seizure, search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to Confiscation, confiscate an ...

'. He ordered the owners to turn off

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

cameras and surrender a licensed revolver held on the premises. Singh and the fake contingent of

(CBI) officers did not allow any phone calls and took samples of ornaments for assessment of the quality of the gold. Singh picked 'samples' of jewellery and had them sealed in polybags. Cash was also collected. After 45 minutes Singh asked two men to put the briefcases in the bus. He asked others to keep watch on the shop and left in the bus to 'supervise' another raid. After about an hour, the owners called the Bombay Police.

Investigation

Police investigation revealed that Singh booked room number 415 at the Taj on 17 March and he put an advertisement in the newspaper. Police found that he reached the hotel after leaving the jewellery shop and hired a taxi from there. The taxi dropped him at

Vile Parle Vile Parle (, also known as Parla), is a suburb and also the name of the railway station in the Western suburb of Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state o ...

where he hired an auto. He was last seen there and there was no trail. The police put out a nationwide alert. They sent a team to

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

as his hotel record showed that he hailed from

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

. A person named George Augustine Fernandes was arrested there but it was later found that he was not involved. They also sent a team to

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

but no headway was reported. According to 1987 report, the cash of and the jewellery worth about was looted. Other reports place the heist amount ranging from to . The case has remained unsolved. A year before, in October 1986, a similar advertisement was published in ''The Times of India'' and about 150 candidates had appeared at the hotel Taj for interview''.'' The CBI had received the tip but the interviewer did not appear. The event was considered as a "dress rehearsal".

Popular culture

* Kalikkalam - A 1990 Malayalam film that had an inspired heist sequence in a jewellery store introducing the lead character played by

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam-language films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, ...

. * '' Khel'' - A 1992 Hindi film had a small heist sequence inspired by this incident. * * ''

Special 26 ''Special 26'' is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language period heist thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. Based on the 1987 Opera House heist, the plot follows a team of criminals (Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher), who pose as CBI off ...

'' - A 2013 Hindi film, directed by

Neeraj Pandey Neeraj Pandey (born 17 December 1973) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Pandey made his directoral debut in ''A Wednesday!'', which was largely praised by critics and which later became a recipien ...

, is based on the heist. It was remade in 2018

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

film ''

Thaanaa Serndha Koottam ''Thaanaa Serndha Koottam'' () is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language crime comedy film directed by Vignesh Shivan. The film stars Suriya, alongside Karthik, Ramya Krishnan, Keerthy Suresh, Nandha, Kalaiyarasan, RJ Balaji, and Suresh Chandra Menon ...

''. * ''The Sialkot Saga'' - A book by Ashwin Sanghi has referenced the heist.

References

{{reflist 1987 crimes in India Crime in Mumbai History of Mumbai (1947–present) Robberies in India Unsolved crimes in India 1980s in Mumbai