Mumbai: It was the timely intervention of Keralite staffer Saju Samuel that prevented dacoits from carrying out an armed robbery at the Muthoot Finance office in Nashik on Friday.
Though he was not familiar with the office and its surroundings, it was Saju who pushed the alarm button at the right time. The dacoits then shot Saju and fled.
On normal days, very few employees used to be present in the office during the afternoon hours. But since it was the day of auditing, there were several employees present in the office, including Saju.
Two of the five-member gang held back the security personnel and the remaining assailants entered the office. They took mobile phones and other items from the employees before the robbery attempt.
At this point, Saju tried to stop one of the dacoits and was shot. Though he fell down, Saju got up and pressed the alarm, thus thwarting the robbery. The dacoits had asked Saju to switch off the siren, he refused.
Since the siren went off, the robbers knew that police could reach the spot anytime and tried to flee. Saju caught hold of one of the gang members, who was the last to get out of the office. Seeing this, another gang member came back and shot Saju several times, killing him on the spot.
Five bullets were taken out of Saju's body during the autopsy. One of the bullets had pierced his jaw bones and entered his chest.
Saju was supposed to reach the Nashik branch of the company on Thursday for the audit. As he was late to start from Mumbai, the audit was postponed to Friday.
Probe on
The police said the inquiry into the attack is in progress. The police have released the photographs of the assailants obtained from CCTV footage. They are also inquiring if the attack has any links to a similar dacoity that took place at Jalna in Marathwada recently.
Nashik DCP Purnima Chougule told Manorama that the culprits seemed familiar to the area and surroundings. By observing their movements from the CCTV footage, there was nothing to show that they were new to the area, she said.
It is suspected that there were at least 7-8 members in the gang. While some entered the office, others were waiting outside. The police said it is difficult to carry out such a robbery without having local links.
The police had reached the spot within 10 minutes. They collected fingerprints and other forensic evidence and informed police stations in Mumbai, Thane, Jalna and Aurangabad about the details of the attack and shared the CCTV visuals.
The police said the security man in front of the office could not stop the dacoits.
