BARIPADA: Armed miscreants opened fire on a liquor shop owner and looted Rs 1 lakh cash from him at Gorumahisani market in Mayurbhanj district on Tuesday.
The liquor shop owner, Sabyasachi Mohanty, suffered gunshot wounds in his thigh and has been admitted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Eyewitnesses said three armed miscreants arrived at Mohanty’s foreign liquor shop on two motorcycles in the afternoon. They entered the shop and asked for beer. Subsequently, they took out a firearm and demanded cash from the counter. When Mohanty refused to hand over the money, the miscreants opened three rounds of fire.
After being hit by two bullets in the thigh, Mohanty collapsed on the floor. The miscreants then grabbed all the cash from the counter and fled towards Musabani in neighbouring Jharkhand on their bikes.
The injured liquor shop owner was rushed to Gorumahisani hospital by locals. He was later shifted to Rairangpur sub-divisional hospital. Due to severity of his injuries, Mohanty was transferred to a private hospital in the state capital.
The incident reportedly took place just 200 metre from Gorumahisani police station. Police said the miscreants abandoned one of their bikes after it ran out of fuel on the way.
Officer in-charge of Gorumahisani police station Jagannath Munda said a case has been registered on basis of the complaint filed by Mohanty’s family. The bike left behind by the criminals has been seized. Police are scanning the footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area. Efforts are underway to identify and trace the miscreants involved in the incident.
In a similar incident two months back, armed miscreants looted lakhs of rupees from the Bahalda branch of SBI Bank after opening fire. Police recently arrested three persons for their involvement in the loot incident.