In an alarming incident, five men dressed as ‘Nihangs’ carried out a massive robbery at the house of a jeweller in Punjab’s Gurdaspur on Thursday (5th March). The robbers looted cash and jewellery amounting to ₹3.5 crores by holding the entire family of the jeweller hostage.
As per reports, the robbery took place at the residence of Varun Mahajan, the owner of Manohar Saraf, one of the oldest jewellers of the town. The robbers barged into the house of the jeweller, located at Scheme No 5 of the Improvement Trust, on Jail Road in Gurdaspur town, around 8 am and stayed there till 9:30 am. Before entering the house, they carefully disconnected the surveillance cameras nearby.
On their way into the house, they saw the family’s driver washing a vehicle. One of the robbers asked the driver where the house owner was, saying they wanted to discuss a religious matter with him. The unsuspecting driver went inside the house to call the owner when the robbers walked into the house behind him. As soon as the robbers entered the house, one of them pointed a pistol at the children in the house and held the entire family hostage. They threatened to chop the fingers of the children and asked for the keys to the locker.
The terrified wife of the jeweller handed over the keys to the robbers. They tied the hostages with nylon ropes and took away way cash, gold and silver jewellery from lockers after taking their keys. The robbers also took away the DVR of the CCTV cameras installed at the house to destroy evidence and fled in the jeweller’s vehicle.
“When the driver went inside, the robbers followed him and forcefully entered the house. As soon as they got inside, the accused pointed a pistol at the children and held the entire family hostage. The robbers then took out a cutter from a bag and threatened to cut off the children’s fingers if any of the family members cried and did not hand over all the gold and cash. They asked the family to hand over the keys to the locker where the valuable items, including gold, were locked. Terrified, the family complied,” Mahajan said in his complaint to the police.
Notably, the house of the jeweller is located 200 yards away from the residence of Gurdaspur, senior superintendent of police (SSP). The colony is considered one of the safest colonies in the town.
Later on, a team of police officers led by SSP Aditya arrived at the scene and started an investigation. AN FIR has been registered in the case. “We have got a few clues and hope to crack the case soon,” SSP Aditya said.
After the robbery, several politicians, including Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, BJP MLA Ashwani Sharma and AAP leader Raman Bahl, visited the house of the jeweller. Slamming the ruling AAP government in the state, MLA Sharma said, “This is not a mere robbery, it is proof of law and order failure. It is shameful that this is the ‘badlav’ the AAP government wanted to bring in.”
