Bhubaneswar: Hardcore Thieves and Criminals seem to have targeted jewellery shops and golf establishments in different parts of Odisha to execute their evil design.
This is evident from three recent incidents when the miscreants targeted gold shops.
The craze for gold loot has become so intense that the miscreants do not hesitate to kill people who comes on their way.
At least two people were killed at Panikoili in Jajpur district on Saturday when they were opposed.
The Jajpur incident took place a day after the miscreants looted 30 kilogram of gold and cash from Manappuram Finance’s branch on Budharaja Main Road in Sambalpur.
Prior to that the thieves also looted a small gold shop at Jaleswar in Balasore district.
A report from Jajpur said that two persons were shot dead by armed men during a robbery attempt.
The victims were identified Sunil Kumar Ray, a jewellery store employee at Panikoili, and Nila Madhab Panda, a resident of Soti village.
According to Police, Shri Ray was riding his motorcycle to a bank to deposit the store’s cash when he was shot around 1.30 pm.
He was admitted to the district headquarters hospital in critical condition but succumbed to his injuries, police said.
Soon after, local chased the armed men and overpowered two of them while two others managed to escape.
Police arrived at the spot and arrested the two and launched a manhunt to nab the others.
Similarly, the report from Sambalpur said that around 30 kg of gold was allegedly robbed at gunpoint from Manappuram Finance’s, a gold loan company in Sambalpur city.
The robbery took place at Manappuram Finance’s branch on Budharaja Main Road on Friday morning.
Besides the gold, the robbers took away over Rs 4 lakh in cash.
The gang of robbers barged into the branch just after it had opened.
Three employees were held at gunpoint, while the hands and feet of the branch manager were tied, police said.
While some of the robbers were busy holding the staff of the branch hostage, the others of the gang acquired the keys and password to the vault and robbed the gold jewellery and cash.
Some of them were also guarding the branch outside, according to the FIR.
“There were around 7-10 robbers and they were wearing helmets and masks. They fled the spot on motorcycles soon after the robbery,” said SDPO Tophan Bag.
He said the CCTV footage of the area was being scanned and the employees of the company were interrogated.
In a statement, Manappuram Finance said preliminary investigations suggested that the stolen assets were valued at approximately Rs 20 crore.
Stating that no staff or customer was injured, it said the affected individuals were receiving counselling and suppori.
“We want to reassure all affected customers of the branch that their assets would be compensated by the company,” it added
The Jaleswar incident took place on December 25 when miscreants looted gold Jewellery weighing 300 gram and Rs 5 lakh cash from a jewellery shop.
The loot took place in Kamarda Bazar under Kamarda Police Station limits in the district.
The report said that the jewellery shop owner had gone outside to bring drinking water when the miscreants entered the jewellery shop and looted the jewellery bag as well as Rs 5 lakh cash from the treasury.