Karnataka: Gang loots Mysuru jeweller, kills man while fleeing

MYSURU: An armed robbery at a jewellery shop in a bustling Mysuru neighbourhood on Monday evening took a grisly turn as a gang of four shot a youth, killing him on the spot. Police said it is not clear why the gang, which was fleeing with their loot, fired at 23-year-old Chandru, a mason.
The robbers entered the shop in Vidyaranyapuram, Mysuru, around 5.15pm. They downed the shutters and tied up the shop owner, Dharmendra. Around this time, Chandru is believed to have arrived with a relative to buy an earstud and stood outside. Around 5.30pm, as a relative of the shopowner clanged the shutter, the gang came out with their booty. Suddenly, while decamping, one of them shot Chandru, who collapsed. The cold-blooded murder left dozens of shoppers shocked. Preliminary probe revealed only one shot was fired. Police released CCTV footage of the assailants and sought public help to trace them.
Police commissioner Chandragupta said it is yet to be established what provoked the gang to open fire. The robbers fled with jewellery and the loss is yet to be estimated, he said. CCTV footage shows the four arriving on foot and police are probing if they had brought a vehicle and parked it elsewhere. All four robbers wore blue T-shirts and their masks were pulled down to the chin.
Chandru, a resident of Dadadahalli, had come to the shop with Rajith to buy himself a stud and waited outside, having wrongly assumed it was yet to open. “It was all over in a few minutes,” an inconsolable Rajith said. “As we were waiting, somebody came and started knocking on the shutter asking the shop owner to open.” As he tried to lift the shutter, the robbers panicked and began to run, he said. “I took Chandru to two private hospitals and then to the government-run KR Hospital where he was declared brought dead,” added Rajith.