JAJPUR: Hours before Chief Minister Mohan Majhi’s visit to Jajpur district, two persons were shot dead by a gang of armed robbers during an attempted loot of a jewellery shop at Panikoili on Saturday.
The deceased have been identified as Sunil Kumar Ray, an employee of the Panda Alankar shop, and Nilamadhab Panda, a local.
According to eyewitness reports, a gang of five came to the jewellery shop on two bikes posing as customers in the afternoon. While three of them went into the shop on the pretext of buying jewellery, two others stood outside. Around the same time, Ray came out of the shop with a money bag for deposit in the local bank.
The gang members who went inside snatched mobile phones from the salesmen at gunpoint and looted gold jewellery from the shop. Seeing the robbery attempt, the shop owner Ashok Panda who was in his chamber, rushed out and screamed for help.
Anticipating trouble, the trio tried to escape but by then locals had congregated in front of the shop. They tried to overpower the robbers and managed to capture one of them but two managed to flee the spot after snatching a bike from an onlooker.
Meanwhile, the two other gang members had followed Ray and tried to rob him on the way to the bank. They reportedly opened fire at him, injuring him critically. Hearing Ray’s scream, locals rushed to the spot. The miscreants opened fire at them too following which Panda was hit by a bullet and died on the spot.
Ray, who sustained critical injuries, was rushed to the district headquarters hospital and later shifted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar where he succumbed.
However, the locals managed to overpower one of the robbers there. The two miscreants were thrashed mercilessly by the mob before police reached the spot and took them in their control. The severely injured gang members were taken to the district headquarters hospital and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after their condition deteriorated.
Jajpur SP Yashpratap Shrimal said a scientific team has been pressed into investigation and CCTV footage outside the jewellery shop and other nearby stores is being examined. “We are investigating the incident from all angles. Our main aim is to ascertain the identity of the miscreants,” he said.
Central range DIG Charan Singh Meena visited the site to take stock of the situation.