Daylight heist at finance firm in B'lore

Cash, valuables to the tune of Rs 3 crore robbed by armed men

In a daring daylight robbery, two armed men looted cash and valuables worth Rs three crore from a private finance company in Rajarajeshwarinagar here on Friday.

According to police, two youths, aged between 25 and 30, wearing visor helmets came to India Infoline Gold Loan Facility, located on the third floor of a building in BEML Layout, at about 12.50 pm. The security guard at the entrance grew suspicious about them and tried to prevent them from entering the office. However, the two overpowered the lone guard, dragged him inside the office and locked the main door.

One of the intruders was carrying a dagger and other, a revolver. There were five persons in the office - manager Bhamini;  customer care executive Uma; gold officer Pramila Kumari, office boy Gangadhar and security guard Shivakumar - when the incident occurred.

The robbers threatened the staff and herded all of them into the locker room. They asked the manager to open the locker and emptied the contents - 9.92 kg of gold ornaments and Rs six lakh in cash - into the two bags they had brought with them. However, they left one kg gold in the locker since their bags were full. The duo exited from the main door and soon after the manager pressed the anti-burglary panic button.

The office building had two CCTV cameras - one in the hall and another in the room. One of the robbers damaged the camera in the locker room and cut the wires.

However, he had removed his helmet in the process and his face was captured by the camera. According to the police, the image matches with that of a man arrested in a
similar robbery at a jewellery shop in Subramanyanagar last year.

The security guard posted at the office had no formal training required for his job and he was not armed. The staff at the office appeared to have no knowledge of tackling such exigencies. There was no CCTV camera installed outside the office.

According to the police, cash and valuables totalling to about Rs three crore has been looted from the office.

India Info Line provides gold loan, home loan and insurance loans against property and equipment. The office was to celebrate its second anniversary on September 19. Three teams have been formed to trace the culprits.