Jewellery shop looted in broad daylight in Patna

Bihar,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident

Crime/Disaster/Accident, Bihar, India, National Read Latest News and Articles

Share With Your Friends

Patna, Jan 21 (IANS) Four armed men wearing face masks on Friday barged into a jewellery shop in Patna's Bakarganj market and looted gold, silver and diamond jewelleries worth more than Rs 1 crore.

Shocked by the broad daylight robbery, Vijay Prasad, the shop owner, had lost his consciousness for a while.

Patna has the oldest bullion market in Bakarganj having more than 50 shops of wholesale-cum-retail shops. The shop owners claimed that this was the first time such an incident took place in the market.

"The men, wearing face masks, posed as normal customers, came to the shop and took everyone at gunpoint. They asked the employees to put all the jewellery in the cotton bags. After executing the robbery, they ran away towards their bikes to flee from the spot," Vijay Prasad, the owner of SS Jewellers said after regaining consciousness.

"Following the robbery, my employees screamed for help. The other shop owners pelted stones and bricks on. One of the robbers was overpowered by shop owners and the local traders after he was hit by stones," said a trader of Bakarganj market, requesting anonymity.

"The police personnel came to the spot 45 minutes after the incident. We have handed over one of the thieves to the police. A cotton bag was also recovered from his having some jewellery," he said.

Following the incident, the shop owners shut their outlets and went on a strike for an "indefinite period".

They have demanded the arrest of the persons involved in the incident, along with the recovery of the stolen jewellery.

One of the traders claimed that even as of them made several calls to Patna SSP MS Dhillon, he did not respond.

A police officer said that one of the arrested robbers has provided some details about the hideouts of the other robbers.

--IANS

ajk/pgh