Gun-wielding robbers escape with Rs 1.5 crore worth gold jewels from store in Avadi

CHENNAI: In a daring daylight heist, four men wielding guns escaped with at least Rs 1.5 crore worth gold jewellery and Rs 5 lakh cash after attacking the store owner in Muthapudupet near Avadi on Monday.

The incident happened around noon on a busy stretch, police said. Though the stretch is busy, the shops nearby have remained closed for the last few days which the perpetrators had taken advantage of, police sources said.

The perpetrators were not wearing masks and had entered the shop in the pretext of looking to buy jewels, preliminary investigations revealed.

The owner, Prakash Pukkaram (33) has been running a gold jewellery store cum pawn shop - Krishna Jewellers at Ellaiamman Nagar, Muthapudupet for the last four years.

Around 12 noon, four men had barged into the store when Prakash was alone and any assumptions that Prakash had about the quartet being customers were soon blown away when the men flashed guns at him.

They attacked Prakash and tied him up in a chair while they wiped off all the gold jewellery and cash in the locker and made their escape.

Prakash managed to untangle himself after the gang fled and alerted the police after which a team from Muthapudupet Police station rushed to the scene.

"We suspect there were five or six persons in total who were part of the gang. While four of them went to the shop, others were outside keeping a lookout, " a police officer said.

Probe revealed that the stolen jewels were a mix of new jewellery and old jewels pawned by at least 140 persons in the neighbourhood with Prakash's pawnstore.

"We have images of the suspects from the CCTV footage which has been distributed to other police stations. Our probe has revealed that they made escape with a car and have not crossed State borders. We are hopeful of catching the accused within 24 hours, " a senior police officer with Avadi City Police said.