A group of armed men stormed the Tanishq jewellery showroom in Ara town on Monday and looted gold and diamond ornaments worth ₹25 crore, along with some cash.

As information about the daylight dacoity spread, the police swung into action. They claimed to have arrested two persons after an encounter in which both of them suffered bullet injuries, and recovered two bags of jewellery from them.

The brazen incident occurred at the showroom located at the Gopali Chowk area in the middle of the Ara town, around 55km west from the state capital. Ara (also called Arrah) is the district headquarters of Bhojpur. At least six persons were involved in it, though the police are suspecting that their number could be around eight to 10.

CCTV footage from the cameras installed at the showroom showed that five miscreants entered the store one by one around 10.28am, soon after it opened for the day. One of them was wearing a mask and a helmet, another was wearing a mask, while the rest did not cover their faces or head.

They took out their pistols, quickly overpowered the two private security guards deployed there, and snatched a single barrel gun from them.

The security guards and eight other showroom staff present inside were pushed towards the far end of the shop at gunpoint. All of them were asked to put their hands up. Later, they were made to squat on the floor in a hands up position.

One of the women employees quickly hid jewellery boxes from plain sight as the dacoity began, even as the armed men moved around the shop.

The robbers quickly collected jewellery from the display cases and cupboards, putting the valuables in bags. The entire heist was over in around 20 minutes and they escaped from the scene. They also took the security guard’s gun with them.

“As per preliminary assessment, ornaments and diamonds worth ₹25 crore have been taken away. We are still in process of verifying how much cash has been taken by the criminals,” Tanishq store manager Kumar Mrityunjay said.

Some employees rang up the police as soon as they realised the store was being looted. They also dialed emergency response number 112. But the police did not arrive for over half-an-hour, despite the Ara town police station located just around 700 meters away.

“The police kept telling that they were coming, but nobody arrived till the robbers were present,” the showroom employees alleged.

The police put up barricades at various places in the district after the incident and started intensive checking of the vehicles passing by. Snaps of the robbers taken from the CCTV footage were also circulated to the police officers.

“As per the directions, the Barhara station house officer and other police personnel were checking the vehicles at Babura Chhoti Pul. They noticed six suspects moving on three motorcycles from Ara – Babura towards Doriganj area. They gestured to them to stop after which they increased their speed and fled towards Doriganj,” Bhojpur superintendent of police (SP)
Raj said.

“The patrolling vehicle of Barhara police station tried to corner them. It bumped into one of the motorcycles after which the robbers left it and ran on foot towards the agriculture fields. They also fired at the police, after which the police also fired back. Two of them were hit in their legs, were captured and taken to the hospital,” Raj added.

They have been identified as Vishal Gupta and Kunal Kumar of Saran district. The police recovered two pistols, 10 bullets, and two bags of ornaments looted from the Tanishq store. The motorcycle has also been seized.

The Bhojpur SP said that further action was being taken to arrest the others involved in the incident.