At least six armed assailants broke into the house of a jeweller in Gosainganj area in the wee hours of Thursday and fled with cash and valuables worth over ₹7 lakh, after holding his parents hostage and beating them up.

The assailants took around ₹2.1 lakh from the house and jewellery worth over Rs 5 lakh from jeweller Daya Khandelwal’s showroom in the same building in Khurdai market on Lucknow-Sultanpur highway in Gosainganj, said police.

Members of the traders’ association (Adarsh Vyapar Mandal) expressed resentment over the incident and threatened a stir, if the police failed to work out the case in 72 hours. The traders’ delegation even visited the spot.

According to police, the house was targeted when the jeweler’s elderly parents, Basant Lal Khandelwal and Vimla Khandelwal were sleeping in the house.

Daya Khandelwal runs a jewellery shop — Shubh Shagun Jewellers — in one portion of the same building where his parents stay while he, along with his wife and children, stays in Lalbagh.

The jeweller told police that the assailants broke into the house by removing bricks below the iron grill. His father was held hostage as he woke up when the miscreants were removing the grill.

The assailants also held the jeweller’s mother hostage and beaten up the elderly couple when they refused to hand over the shop’s keys.

He said the miscreants stayed in the building for around two hours, during which they searched the entire house and tried to break the main locker of the shop in which gold and silver jewellery was kept.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Lucknow, Kalanidhi Naithani said an FIR under relevant IPC sections of dacoity and criminal house trespass had been registered against unidentified miscreants on the jeweller’s complaint. He said six teams were deployed to work out the case at the earliest.

He said initial probe suggested that the miscreants were aware about the geography of the house and they had done a reccee before committing the crime.

The assailants had planned to enter the shop from inside the house. “We have scanned the CCTV footage of the shop in which some miscreants covering their faces with scarves have been spotted. The police are trying to identify them by analysing their built and clothes,” he added.

TRADERS WARN OF STIR

State president of Adarsh Vyapar Mandal, Sanjay Gupta said the incident had created insecurity among other jewellers and traders.

The traders’ association will be forced to hit the streets against the “deteriorating law and order” situation if the police did not work out the case in the next 72 hours.

How they entered the house

The jeweller told police that the assailants broke into the house by removing bricks below the iron grill.

His father was held hostage as he woke up when the miscreants were removing the grill.

The assailants also held the jeweller’s mother hostage and beaten up the elderly couple when they refused to hand over the shop’s keys.

First Published: Jan 04, 2019 13:23 IST