Five armed men loot 1 kg gold in Karimnagar heist

A daylight dacoity rocked Karimnagar when five armed men stormed a PMJ jewellery shop in Jyothinagar, opening fire and looting nearly 1 kg of gold. Four staff members, including the sales manager and security guard, sustained injuries and are undergoing treatment.

Karimnagar: In a daring daylight dacoity, five armed persons opened fire and looted jewellery from PMJ jewellery shop in Jyothinagar here on Sunday morning. The dacoits fled with costly jewellery and four of the jewelry shop staff were injured in the incident. They were rushed to different hospitals.

According to police, while the staff of the shop took out jewellery from lockers for display, five motorcycle-borne burglars rushed to the shop on two bikes along with firearms and barged into it. The incident occurred between 11 am and 11.11 am.

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Initially, one accused posing as a customer entered the shop and enquired about 20 grams of gold chain. Later, two others came to the shop and asked the staff to show gold jewellery. Finally, the remaining two also entered the shop.

One among the last two pulled out a pistol and threatened the security guard at point blank range. Simultaneously, others also pulled out their weapons and threatened to shoot other staff. All the workers were forced to sit on their knees in one spot.

The accused opened fire when the staff tried to overpower the dacoits. As a result, four workers sustained injuries.

Later, dacoits filled the jewellery in a bag they had brought and fled from the spot. They used both Hindi and Telugu while conversing with each other. According to preliminary estimations, about 1 kg of gold was stolen in the heist.

While sales manager Mustaq sustained a bullet injury to his head, Madhukar got an injury to his stomach. Kamalakar and security guard Rakesh were also injured. They are undergoing treatment in different hospitals.

Knowing about the incident, police along with the CLUES team rushed to the shop and began an investigation by examining the footage acquired from CCTV cameras fixed in the shop.

Police recovered four cartridges and one magazine from the spot. Besides pictures of the accused, the CCTV footage of the robbery was also released by the police.

Commissioner of Police, Gaush Alam visited the shop and enquired about the incident. Speaking on the occasion, CP informed that multiple teams have been formed to trace the accused. The health condition of injured workers was stable.

Out of five, only one accused wore a face mask and the remaining four were without masks. So, it would be easy for police to identify the accused. All the details of the accused would come to know in the investigation, he said.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, local MLA Gangula Kamalakar, Choppadandi MLA and DCC president Medipally Satyam and others visited the spot and enquired about the incident.

Inspector General of Police, Multi Zone-1, Chandrashekhar Reddy also visited the spot and enquired about the incident. Later, IG comforted the injured persons by visiting hospitals.