Brave IT engineer knocked down two suspects, fuming robber shot him

NASHIK: The six armed men who had planned to rob the Muthoot Finance Company office in Untawadi faced an unanticipated adversary and panicked. While most of them fled, one suspect angry at their plan going awry shot at IT engineer Muriyayikara Saju Samuel who took them on, the Nashik police said.
Nashik city police commissioner, Vishwas Nangre-Patil, Samuel was daring and single-handedly took on the armed men for trying to rob cash and gold from the office.

“Jitendra Rajput, who was arrested on Sunday, has told us that Samuel was shot and killed by one of his accomplices. The shooter feared that Samuel would overpower and nab him and it would lead to his arrest,” Nangre Patil said.
Samuel was in a room in back office along with the auditor, Kailash Jayan (25), when the suspects entered. He pressed the burglar alarm when he saw the suspects beating up the manager.
“When some of the suspects entered the back office and tried to overpower Samuel and Jayan, the IT engineer hit them with a tray lying on the table. This infuriated the robbers and they dragged both of them out of the room,” said Nangre Patil.
That is when the young IT engineer from Alappuzha in Kerala saw the other suspects terrorising and thrashing the branch manager, Chandrasheker Deshpande, to part with the keys of the strong room to take cash and gold. He then single-handedly took on the suspects, said the police.
“Samuel punched two suspects and pushed them hard on the floor. Then, he caught hold of another suspect. When the other three miscreants saw Samuel holding their accomplice, they got out of the office, climbed down the stairs and stood near their bikes,” said Nangare Patil.
The two suspects, who were beaten up, also scrambled out of the office and joined the trio waiting outside.
“Samuel continued to hold onto the suspect but he somehow managed to free himself. He turned around and shot three bullets at Samuel at point blank range. He then escaped from the office with his accomplices. All suspects then changed their clothes and partners on bikes at different locations to escape police detection,” said Nangare Patil.
In their hurry to escape, the suspects had left behind six foldable bags at the office. These bags had manufacturing marks from Surat, indicating that the robbers had some connction with Gujarat, the police said.
During the course of their investigation, the police have found that another gang had conducted recce of three other branches of Muthoot in Nashik, Jalgaon and Aurangabad.
On June 14, The robbers had arrived on three motorcycles to the commercial complex which houses the finance company's office.
Brandishing revolvers, they barged into the first floor office around 11.30am and forced seven employees and a few customers, including women, into a corner. When they saw Samuel and the auditor, Kailash Jayan (25), in a room in the back office, they dragged them out. However, before that, Samuel displayed presence of mind to press the burglar alarm.
Police officials, quoting some eyewitnesses, said the robbers spoke in Marathi. "We suspect they must have done a recce of the entire area before making this attempt to rob cash and gold from the office," they said.
After the incident, the entire area around the commercial complex was cordoned off and sniffer dogs were pressed into service. There was traffic chaos in the area as vehicular movement on the busy road was stopped for over an hour.