Jajpur: Two persons were shot dead by a gang of armed robbers during an attempt to loot a jewellery shop at Panikoili in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Saturday.
The deceased have been identified as Sunil Kumar Ray, an employee of Panda Alankar shop, and Nilamadhab Panda, a local resident.
Sources said five robbers reached the jewellery shop on two bikes posing as customers in the afternoon. While three of them went into the shop on the pretext of buying jewellery, two others stood outside.
Around the same time, Ray came out of the shop with a money bag for deposit in the local bank.
The gang members who went inside snatched mobile phones from the salesmen at gunpoint and looted gold jewellery from the shop. Seeing the robbery attempt, the shop owner who was in his chamber, rushed out and screamed for help.
Anticipating trouble, the three tried to escape but by then locals had gathered outside the shop. They tried to overpower the robbers and managed to capture one of them but two escaped after snatching a bike from an onlooker.
Meanwhile, the two other gang members had followed Ray and tried to rob him on the way to the bank. They reportedly opened fire at him, injuring him critically. Hearing Ray’s scream, locals rushed to the spot. The miscreants opened fire at them too following which Panda was hit by a bullet and died on the spot.
Ray, who sustained critical injuries, was rushed to the district headquarters hospital and later shifted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar where he succumbed.
Following the incident, a police team visited the spot and took the two apprehended accused into custody. A search operation has been launched to trace and apprehend the fleeing attackers. Investigation is underway.
The incident comes a day after an armed robbery by a gang at the office of a gold loan firm in Sambalpur on Friday.
