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Amid spiralling prices of onion, about 700 kg stock of the key kitchen staple worth Rs 50,000 was allegedly stolen from a shop in suburban Mumbai, police said today.
About 14 sacks of onion were stolen from a shop of vendor Anant Naik at Prateeksha Nagar in Wadala apparently between Friday night and Saturday morning, they said.
Naik had left his shop on Friday night and was shocked to find the onion sacks missing when he reached there yesterday morning.
A case has been registered in this regard under IPC section 379 (theft) at Wadala TT police station, they added.
The wholesale onion prices yesterday touched Rs 57 per kg at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, Asia's biggest onion market, raising the possibility of a further spike in retail prices in most parts of the country adding to consumers' woes.
In the price-sensitive Delhi market and some other parts of the country, retail onion prices have already gone up to Rs 80 per kg depending on the quality of the crop.
In spite of several government measures, the prices of onion have increased unabated both in the wholesale and retail markets in the last few weeks due to tight supply following shortfall in domestic output.
The likely fall in this year's kharif (summer) crop due to deficit rainfall has also contributed to the price rise.
