In a daring daylight robbery on Friday, four masked men barged into a gold-testing shop in Triplicane and stole half a kilogram of gold and Rs. 11 lakh in cash at knife point.
They struck at Staar Testing, a shop on Devarajan Street, a narrow lane leading off Triplicane High Road that comes under the Zaam Bazaar police station limits.
“On Friday morning, 20-year-old Akshay, who is our relative, was sweeping the floor in one of the two rooms in the shop. Around 10 a.m., five men wearing masks barged into the room and pushed him aside. They threatened him at knife point and forced him to sit in a corner of the shop,” said P. Sajan, who runs the shop along with his brother P. Pradeep.
The five ransacked the shop and looted the valuables.
“They damaged the CCTV camera and other equipment and ran out of the shop. The burglars escaped from the locality on two motorbikes. Akshay noted their vehicle number and informed the police,” said Sajan.
Mr. Akshay said that the five men hit him and threatened to kill him if he did not part with the locker key. “One person spoke good Hindi. They kept saying they would not do anything if I handed them the cash and valuables,” said Akshay.
P. Suhas, Sajan’s cousin, said the shop had been functioning for the last two years and there was an older shop on the same lane that was established over a decade ago. He said the shop was mainly into testing gold bars for purity and the main customers were jewellers.
The Zam Bazaar police rushed to the spot and collected the CCTV footage. Forensic experts lifted fingerprints from the shop.
“We suspect that the crime was committed by someone who knew the shop well. As it was New Year’s Day, the nearby shops had not opened,” said a police officer.
Further investigation is on.
Meanwhile, Samsunihar, lawyer for the shop owners, said that a man had defrauded the shop owners of some gold a few months ago.
“The man had posed as a customer and purchased 400 grams of gold. Under the pretext of withdrawing money from the bank, he took an assistant from the shop. But from the bank, he escaped with the gold. The police nabbed the man but could not make any recovery,” he said.
