Four  men barged into a real estate office on Begur Main Road on Thursday night and robbed the owner at gunpoint. 

Shortly thereafter, they attacked a plywood trader at a nearby shop and robbed him of Rs 50,000 in cash. Before fleeing, they fired two rounds in the air. 

The robbers — three of whom wore balaclavas and the fourth helmet to hide identity — barged into the office of SMT Builders and Developers around 8.30 pm, the Electronics City police said. 

Kiran Kumar, a 40-year-old Congress party worker who runs the realty business, was engrossed in conversation with his friends — Manjunath, Muniyappa and Umesh —  when the robbers barged in. Police said the robbers, aged between 25 and 30, had parked their two bikes at least 50 metres away. 

“They just barged into the office and locked it from inside,” Jayaram, an employee, recounted to Deccan Herald. “One of them held a country-made pistol while three others brandished lethal weapons. They commanded Kumar to part with cash and valuables. 

When he resisted, they punched Umesh in the face. Then they smashed a glass door. Thereafter, they snatched Kumar’s two gold chains, a mobile phone, a Rado watch and wallet which had Rs 50,000 in cash.” 

But they did not run away. They instead barged into a plywood shop in the same lane, attacked its owner and took away Rs 50,000 from the cash counter. Thereafter, they smashed Kumar’s Maruti Swift car and damaged its windscreen and sped away, police said.

Just then, Kumar’s acquaintances — Manjunath, Yogaraj, Shivareddy — asked some local youths to go after the robbers. When some youths threw stones at the robbers and chased them, one of them  came back, opened a fire in the air and two towards the youths. The bullet, however, hit Kumar’s car, police added. 

The robbers spoke Hindi. No CCTV camera was installed at Kumar’s office, hence it would be difficult to establish the robbers’ identity, police said. 

Kamal Pant, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), suspected that it was merely a robbery attempt and not a bid on Kumar’s life. Nobody has been injured. Special teams would be formed to apprehend the robbers, he said.

Kumar also runs a wedding hall and some other commercial establishments. He stays with his wife and children at Begur, just close to his office.