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Two injured as burglars open fire at Hyderabad jewellery store, decamp with gold and cash
The incident took place at Mahadev Jewellers in Snehapuri colony. An employee from another jewellery store had come to the shop to deliver ornaments and the police suspect the robbers followed him.
A hunt is on for two unidentified men who opened three rounds of fire during a robbery attempt at a jewellery store in Hyderabad late Thursday night. The jewellery store owner and another person suffered injuries as the robbers decamped with gold ornaments and cash, police said.
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The incident took place at around 8.45 to 9 pm at Mahadev Jewellers in Snehapuri colony, Nagole. Posing as customers, the duo entered the store and asked the store owner to show them some jewellery. Meanwhile, one of them pulled down the shutters from inside and brandished a revolver, forcing the workers to fill their bags with gold and cash.
As the employees resisted, the man fired three rounds, injuring the owner Kalyan Chowdhary on his face and Rajkumar Sukhdev, an employee from another jewellery store, on his shoulder. Sukhdev had come to Mahadev Jewellers to deliver ornaments. Alerted by locals, police rushed to the store and the injured were admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The Chaithanyapuri police have registered a case and formed special teams to nab the accused.
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Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat told the reporters Friday morning that the assailants appeared to have conducted a recce of the jewellery store and tracked the movements of Sukhdev who delivered gold jewellery from Ganpati Jewellers in Secunderabad to about seven or eight shops every Thursday. “He(Sukhdev) had carried with him jewellery weighing about 3 kg and visited six to seven shops before reaching Mahadev Jewellery. One of the accused was wearing a white helmet, another wore a cap, and a third one was waiting outside,” Bhagwat said.
He clarified that only the bag containing gold jewellery brought by Sukhdev was missing and the total loss of the gold is being estimated. “The two received three bullet injuries. The patient was operated upon and the bullet was removed last night. Their condition is stable. In some days, they will be discharged,” the commissioner added.
According to police, CCTV footage suggests the assailants were in the age group of 30 to 35 years and had fled the place in two bikes parked in a nearby lane. Footage from nearby lanes and stores is being examined and all police stations were alerted, police said. The staff told police that the assailants spoke in a Hindi dialect of a North Indian state. Based on the bullet casings found at the scene, the police suspect a country-made gun was used by the accused.
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The Rachakonda police have deployed 15 teams comprising special operations teams, crime teams, law and order police, IT cell etc in the manhunt. Bhagwat said a similar incident of dacoity had happened in July 2018 in Keesara and the accused from a gang based in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were convicted to five to eight years imprisonment. Police are looking for any leads or possible links with that gang in the present incident, he said.