A day after jeweller Jayant Kunjalal was fired at while walking down the staircase of his building at Mahankali of Secunderabad, police are clueless about the persons and motive behind the act.
One of the attackers spoke Bengali, and it has prompted police to probe the possible involvement of gangs from Bengal in the attack.
Narrow escape
The 40-year-old jeweller had a narrow escape as he was fired at from close range while getting down the staircase of the building he was living in at Kalasiguda behind Manju theatre on Wednesday night.
The staircase was narrow. The jeweller, accompanied by his assistant Debashu Das, was walking down the stairs when he saw three persons coming in the opposite direction.
“He leant towards the wall to give way to the strangers. One of the strangers whipped out a country-made firearm and shot at him from close range,” Mahankali ACP G.P. Vasu Sena said.
The bullet hit the wall and ricocheted, hitting the jeweller on his back. Even before the shocked businessman and his assistant could react, the attackers snatched a bag from him and fled.
The bag contained no valuables except a water bottle, police said. Two other members of the gang, who waited outside the building, too, ran away.
Kunjalal suffered a wound on his chin as one of the gang members had attacked him with a knife. Investigators are verifying if the attack was a consequence of personal animosity or a family dispute.
