A group unidentified assailants barged into the Muthoot Finance group’s Pandav Nagar branch on Tuesday afternoon and held the staff hostage before decamping with jewellery and cash reported to be worth crores.
The police said the incident took place at around 1.30 pm when a group barged into the Muthoot Group’s office located in a busy marketplace in east Delhi’s Pandav Nagar and whipped out their fire arms. “One of the assailants held a woman customer hostage on gunpoint and threatened the staff and other customers to gather in one corner of the office and stay quiet,” a source said.
Some locals claimed that five robbers carried out the dacoity, although the police is yet to ascertain the number of robbers. Sources said the other assailants then asked the staff to hand over cash and jewellery to them.
“They gathered `3.5 lakh cash and gold jewellery worth `3 crores in a bag which they had brought with them and later escaped from the office. The staff started screaming for help as soon as the assailants exited from the building and a call was made to the police control room,” a senior police official said.
However, by the time the cops arrived at the spot and the neighbouring traders got to know about the dacoity, the assailants had disappeared. A forensic team of the police examined the area and some samples of fingerprints were taken from the spot and sent for forensic examination.
Despite repeated attempts, DCP (east) O.P. Mishra was not available for comments. The police sources said there was no private security arrangements at the office and even the CCTV cameras have not been installed. “The assailants had probably carried out a recce of the office and were aware of the fact that there was no security guard or the CCTV cameras to capture their movement. We have registered a case and investigations are on,” the official said.
The police is recording statements of the staff to ascertain the exact amount of cash and gold that was taken away by the robbers. “Some local criminals of the area are being questioned to ascertain whether they were involved in the robbery. No arrests have been made so far,” the official said.