GHAZIABAD: A 37-year-old man was shot in the stomach by two masked men who entered his jewellery shop in the Sihani Gate area of Ghaziabad on Thursday afternoon, allegedly in a robbery bid, the latest in a string of armed heists and snatchings that have been reported from the district and led to the suspension of the police chief recently. The new SSP suspended the local police post in-charge soon after the incident.
Around 1.15pm, Vikas Verma, a resident of Vidya Vihar, and his father Arvind were in their shop when the two men walked in. “Both of them were wearing helmets. When I asked them what they wanted, the two immediately whiffed out their guns and pointed at us. They then kept a bag on the counter and asked us to keep all the jewellery in it,” Arvind told TOI.
Unfazed, Arvind soon grabbed the hand of one of the armed men. “But as soon as my son resisted the robbery bid, the other one fired at him. The two fled the shop while my son was lying in a pool of blood. I immediately raised an alarm and rushed my son to Yashoda hospital with the help of locals,” said the owner of Bhagwat Swaroop Banwari Lal Jewellers.
Police said that they received a call around 1.30pm and soon a team led by SSP Muniraj G and SP (city) Nipun Agarwal reached the spot. “Vikas is out of danger now. According to the shop owner, nothing has been stolen. We are probing the case from all angles. Several teams have been formed to nab the perpetrators of the crime,” the SSP said.
Police said that one of their accomplices was waiting for them on a two-wheeler outside the shop. “We have taken in our possession recordings of the footage of CCTV cameras installed in the shop and are also scanning the CCTV footage of the area to find out the direction in which the accused fled on the two-wheeler. History-sheeters of the area are also under the scanner,” the SSP said.
A couple of hours later, Muniraj suspended Abhiman Singh, the in-charge of Dayanand Nagar police post. “Action will also be taken against police personnel deployed for checking in the area,” he added.
Meanwhile, SP (city) Agarwal said that on a complaint from Arvind, a case under IPC sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 307 (attempt to murder) has been registered against unknown people. “Some 10 teams are working on the case and arrests wil be made soon,” he added.
Last Saturday, four armed men wearing face masks and helmets stormed into the Punjab National Bank’s Noor Nagar Sihani branch, held three employees and a customer at gunpoint and decamped with nearly Rs 12 lakh in cash — all in a span of two minutes.
