Chandigarh, Nov 9: A luxury wedding celebration at Chandigarh’s JW Marriott hotel turned into a nightmare for a Mohali-based family after two unidentified men, posing as guests, stole gold jewellery worth ₹18 lakh during the bride’s pheras shortly after midnight on Friday, police said Sunday.
The theft occurred around 12.25 am when the bride’s family momentarily stepped aside to see off relatives. The bag containing gold jewellery — meant for the bride to wear after the rituals — along with some cash, went missing from near the mandap set up in the hotel’s outdoor lawn.
According to police, the suspects, dressed in formal suits like other guests, mingled freely for nearly four and a half hours before the theft. CCTV footage shows the duo entering the venue at 8 pm and inspecting multiple areas before targeting the bag.
Around 12.38 am, one suspect was seen exiting the hotel’s main gate while talking on his phone, as a guard lifted the barricade assuming he was a guest. His accomplice followed moments later, carrying a blazer over his shoulder, allegedly concealing the stolen bag beneath it.
In his complaint, the bride’s brother, Dr Nikhil Sethi, alleged serious security lapses by the hotel. “During the pheras, my mother looked away for barely two to three minutes to see off guests. Suddenly, the bag was missing. Despite informing the event manager and security staff, there was no urgency from the hotel,” he said, adding that some CCTV cameras were not working and action was delayed until police arrived around 1.30 am.
Police said the stolen items, weighing about 170–180 gm, included a gold necklace, two bangles, earrings, a ring, and two gold coins. Since the bride was performing rituals, she was wearing artificial ornaments and was to change into the gold set afterward.
A case has been registered under Section 303(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against unidentified suspects. The hotel’s CCTV footage has been seized, and police teams are tracing the men’s movements before and after the theft.
Sources said the accused, believed to be in their early 20s, may belong to a Gujarat-based group involved in inter-state wedding thefts. Investigators are also examining similarities with a recent theft at an Amritsar wedding, where suspects used the same modus operandi.
When contacted, JW Marriott staff declined to connect calls to the duty manager and said they had “no information regarding the incident.”
