Gurugram, Dec 19 (IANS): Two employees of a leading e-commerce firm were arrested for allegedly stealing 78 smartphones worth Rs one crore from its warehouse at Jamalpur village in Gurugram, said the police on Saturday.

The police have also recovered 38 smartphones out of 78 valued at Rs 50 lakh from their possession at their residence.

The accused duo, Ansar-ul-Haq and Nawab Singh, residents of Nuh district in Haryana, had joined the company a few months ago, added the police.

A case was registered based on a complaint received by the Gurugram police on November 7 this year.

The complainant Aditya Singh alleged that during the company's checking on August 28, it was found that 78 smartphones were stolen from the warehouse.

"We are happy that the police have arrested two accused in such a short period of time. We hope that the police will soon recover the rest of the stolen phones from the accused," Singh added.

The warehouse is located at Gurugram's Jamalpur village.

Sources said the police are looking into the CCTV footage of the warehouse in which the accused duo were allegedly seen stealing mobile phones.

"Acting on a tip-off, the police nabbed one of the accused Ansar-ul-Haq on Thursday from Kadipur area and during his interrogation, the police arrested the other accused Nawab Singh from Pataudi on Friday and recovered 38 smartphones worth Rs 50 lakh out of 78 phones from them at their residence," said ACP (Crime) Preet Pal Sangwan.

During interrogation, the accused duo revealed that the remaining 40 phones are in their accomplice's custody which have not been recovered yet.

The culprits had decided to steal mobile phones from the warehouse to earn some quick money.

"The culprits disclosed that they had stolen the phones during their working office hours and due to Covid-19 protocols and social distancing, nobody searched them at the warehouse gate. They used to throw empty phone box in the warehouse premises and stole the smartphones," Sangwan added.

Later, the accused quit their jobs in September 2020 so that nobody could suspect them of stealing the mobile phones. The police nabbed the accused before they could sell these mobile phones, he said.

"The accused will be sent to police remand for further probe and collect information about the remaining accused. A case was registered at the Bilaspur station under relevant sections of the IPC," Sangwan added.