A middle-aged couple on Sunday evening duped a shopkeeper of Rs 40,000 on the pretext of buying clothes from his shop.

Virendra Kumar, who runs Paras Creations, a boutique in upscale Ashiana Road, has lodged a complaint with the Rajiv Nagar police station in this connection.

According to Virendra, around 3pm on Sunday, a couple in their forties entered his boutique and asked the salesman to show some saris and salwar suits.

After inspecting several pieces, the couple selected around a dozen saris and suits worth Rs 42,500.

Virendra said: 'At the cash counter, the couple paid 21 notes of Rs 2,000 denomination and 50 notes of Rs 10 denomination.'

While the cashier counted the Rs 2,000 notes, the couple told him to hurry up, saying they were getting dela-yed.

At the same time, the woman kept asking the cashier to count the Rs 10 notes first, in order to try and divert his attention.

The man, who too was there, took the Rs 40,000 that had already been counted and placed on the counter, and left the shop.

The shopkeeper realised it only when when they checked for the Rs 40,000 and found it missing.

'CCTV cameras installed in the shop clearly show the man taking away the Rs 40,000,' said Virendra Kumar. The couple, who had arrived on a bike, rode off towards Rajiv Nagar.

Rajiv Nagar police station house officer (SHO) Mritunjay Kumar said: 'The police have received a complaint in this connection.'

In another development, Rajiv Nagar police have cracked the micro finance company loot case, which took place on August 29.

Armed criminals had looted Rs 6 lakh in cash from two employees of Bharat Finance Company, a micro finance company on Digha-Ashiana road. Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj had formed a team lead by deputy superintendent of police (law and order) and the Rajiv Nagar police station SHO.

SHO Mritunjay Kumar said: 'The police, based on raids at different places, arrested three persons behind the incident. The arrested criminals are involved in several incidents and have criminal antecedents.'

The SHO claimed that the police had also recovered pistol, cartridges and the looted Rs 1.22 lakh from their possession.

The police are also probing the role of the micro finance company as its employees had initially claimed that Rs 6 lakh was looted when actually only Rs 3.51 lakh was looted.

On earlier occasions too, criminals had looted employees of the micro finance company.