VIJAYAWADA: Mystery shrouds the armed burglary at a gold workshop not far from the DGP’s camp office in Governorpet late on Tuesday night. Around 9:30 pm, a gang of around 10 broke into the workshop located on the first floor of a nondescript building in Mahankali Market and brandished knives and guns, and made way with 5-kg gold, `2.5L.
Manna Shankar, the 33-year-old owner of the workshop, who along with his brother and six other workers, was at the shop during the incident said they “were paralysed with fear” and couldn’t raise an alarm initially. He termed the burglary that sent shockwaves through the city immaculately planned and dexterously executed. “They swept the shop clean in no time and grabbed ornaments off me and the others,” a shell-shocked Shankar said.
Shankar tried to pin down a burglar, but was injured with a knife before the outlaws took off with their loot in a Maruthi Suziki Ertega bearing vehicle number MH03BC9810. The vehicle registered in Maharashtra was kept with its engine running for the burglars to decamp immediately after they exited the workshop. By the time Shankar and the others rushed to the street, there was no trace of the car.
Police rushed to the spot on being informed of the robbery and sounded alert at all police stations, check posts and toll gates in the state and its neighbours. In his written complaint, Shankar, who hails from West Bengal and settled in Vijayawada 12 years ago, said the burglars spoke Hindi and threatened them with guns and knives. Though the area was jam-packed with people, none dared stop the burglars.
“It all happened in a flash and we feared for our lives, so we did not come out of our shops,” one of the workers in a neighbouring shops said requesting anonymity. All eight CCTV cameras in the workshop have not been working for the last two months and so couldn’t recorded anything.
The footage from CCTV cameras in neighbouring provided a hazy picture of the men running towards their car.
‘Handiwork of professionals’
City Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang said the dexterously planned burglary was “the handiwork of professionals” and that the cops had identified some of the accused. A robbery of the kind is the first in Vijayawada.