Kolkata: A gang of three armed dacoits looted a private firm offering gold loan at gun-point in broad daylight at Khardah in North 24 Parganas. A female customer, Sharbari Ghosh, suffered bullet injuries when one of the accused opened fire on her during the dacoity into IIFL Gold Loan office on Khardah Station Road near Arunachal More.
Ms Ghosh was rushed to a nearby hospital from where she was shifted to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. A case on robbery and several other charges has been initiated by the police. The CCTV footage of the private firm’s office was collected by the detective department of the Barrackpore police commissionerate for examination.
It was at around 9.30 am when two employees opened the office. A security guard was standing outside. Suddenly three miscreants came on a motorcycle.
“They did not give me the time to wear my uniform even. My fire-arm was in the bag,” the security guard recalled
“One of the miscreants held me at gun-point and asked me to lower my head. He spoke in Hindi. He then directed me to show the location of the vaults inside the office. Others were speaking in Bengali. But none of them had covered their faces,” he added.
Meanwhile Ms Ghosh, the customer, walked into the office. Seeing her, one of the dacoits tried to overpower her but failed. Then another opened fired on her. Sources revealed Ms Ghosh had a close shave as the bullet did not hit her. It only caused some bruises on the head. As Ms Ghosh slumped on the floor, the gang fled in their two-wheeler with the valuables.
Barrackpore police commissioner Subrata Mitra, deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Dhrubajyoti De inspected the branch alongwith other officers later. The police said that some ornaments worth Rs 30,000 were looted during the dacoity. He added that an investigation was underway. The police suspect that the gang had done a recee at the office for the last couple of days to plan the dacoity. As per the preliminary probe, the office has two vaults where jewellery and cash totalling around Rs 2.59 crores were kept when it was closed after transaction on Friday afternoon. Local residents demanded security in wake of the daring dacoity.
