Miscreants loot jewellery worth Rs 80 lakh in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh

PRAYAGRAJ: In a broad daylight incident, a group of five unidentified armed and masked robbers looted gold and silver ornaments along with cash worth 80 lakh from a jewellery shop located at Shyam Bihari Lane, chowk area under the limits of Kotwali police station of Pratapgarh district on Thursday morning.
Upon being alerted, senior police officials including SP (Pratapgarh) and CO city along with forces and forensic experts rushed the spot and carried out investigations.
CO (city) Abhay Pandey told TOI that four police teams have been constituted to crack the incident. He added that police have received some clues after scanning CCTV footages and raids were being conducted to catch the robbers. The police have intensified vehicle checking after sealing the border areas.
The broad daylight robbery incident created panic among shopkeepers including jewellers at chowk area who put their shutters down to mark their protest against the incident. Traders alleged that police patrolling was completely missing in chowk area and as result, law breakers were striking at their will.
Police said that the incident took place around 9:25am when the jeweller Suresh Soni had opened his jewellery shop. Before he could understand, a group of three armed robbers barged into the shop and started looting ornaments at gun point while two of their accomplices were standing near their bikes.
The police have been running pillar to post to ascertain the identities of the robbers after scanning the CCTV footages.
IG (Prayagraj range) K P Singh said teams are working hard to compile inputs and the case would be cracked soon. He added that instructions have been issued to Pratapgarh police officials to work out the case at the earliest.