The glass showcase of a music store near Tollygunge Phari was smashed to steal 17 guitars displayed in it.

In his complaint lodged with police, the store owner has said that 17 guitars had been stolen from Roland Pro Music between Tuesday night and Wednesday early morning.

Roland Pro Music is located on the busy Deshapran Sashmal Road, near Tollygunge Phari, and is a prominent landmark.

It was in the morning that people spotted the glass showcase broken and the guitar racks empty. They alerted Charu Market police station.

“Whoever took the guitars did not touch the synthesiser or the cash box. There were more guitars in the store,” said a police officer, who had visited the scene of the crime.

Sources said CCTV footage showed four youths with guitars on the same footpath between 2am and 3am on Wednesday. One of them was seen crossing the road and boarding an autorickshaw with a guitar.

“The remaining three were waiting to board a bus,” an officer said.

The police have found that minibuses of only one route — Naktala to Howrah — operate so early in the morning.

Investigators have started to scan the buses that were running on Tuesday night and early on Wednesday on that route. The police are also looking for the autorickshaw in which one of the suspects left with an apparently stolen guitar.

Officers of the anti-burglary section of the detective department also visited the spot and are assisting in the probe.

Sources at Lalbazar said officers investigating the heist had found that the store did not have any CCTV cameras because the owners were on the verge of renovating it. However, it was not clear whether the store had a CCTV camera that they had removed recently. Metro tried to contact the store officials but did not get any response.

An officer said that from the choice of the guitars and the fact that cash was left behind, it was not clear whether the motive of the theft was only financial gain.

Senior officers in Calcutta police said they could not recall when was the last time a music store was burgled in the city.

Several musicians expressed shock at the incident. “Being a musician I feel terrible for such a loss and hope the police recover them (guitars) soon. I am shocked more so because I have often visited the store for instruments,” said Aniket Dutta, drummer with Calcutta-based band The ARC Project.