Burglars broke open the shutters of five shops at Radha Krishna complex, a commercial-cum-residential complex on Exhibition Road, on Wednesday night and decamped with cash worth over Rs 6 lakh, exposing the lack of policing once again.

The shops - NS Traders (an ice cream distributor), Dashmesh Cookery, Punjab Cookery, Banwari Lal Woodcraft and Ashoka Distributors - are located on the ground floor of the complex and are adjacent to one another.

The thieves, apart from committing the crime, had also tasted the ice cream kept at NS Traders and biscuits at Punjab Cookery.

Dashmesh Cookery owner Mahendra Pal Singh said: "We came to know of the theft in the morning, when I arrived at the shop. The main lock of the shutter was broken and the thieves broke the locker after entering the shop."

He added: "The criminals might have used a sharp blade to break the locker."

Singh had kept Rs 2.72 lakh in his locker to pay salary to his employees.

NS Traders owner Harvinder Pal Singh said: "It appears to be the handiwork of some criminals who had information about cash being kept in the locker."

All the five shops were located inside the complex.

However, shops located outside the complex were not targeted.

The traders claimed that the thieves might have entered the shop at night when movement of people on the road was thin.

A trader said: "By looking at the modus operandi employed by the thieves it appears that they might have taken three to four hours to commit the crime."

The station house officer (SHO) of Gandhi Maidan police station, Priyaranjan, said: "Prima facie, it appears to be the work of some local criminals as they had knowledge of where the traders kept their cash."

The SHO claimed that a CCTV which was installed on the premises was not working as traders generally switch off the lights and the CCTV cameras before leaving for home.

The police conducted raids in various slum areas around Exhibition road.

The dog squad and fingerprint experts were called in to collect evidence from the spot.

However, no one has been arrested so far in connection with the case.