Uttar Pradesh: Armed robbers loot Rs 40 lakh cash from Agra’s hawala dealer

AGRA: In a daylight robbery, four masked men allegedly looted Rs 40 lakh cash from employees of an NM courier company after holding them hostage on gun point in Agra’s Rawat Pada area on Friday.
The courier firm was reportedly dealing in Hawala money, said police.
The courier company has been run in a room by Ahmedabad based Mahipat for almost a decade. Anand Puri who hails from Gujarat’s Mehsana district is the manager of the firm told police that four men armed with pistols entered the office around 1:30pm and started thrashing him and others including Sani Patel, Kripal and Sahdev.
They took cash of Rs 10 lakh which was lying there and then threatened to kill all of them if they didn't disclose where more money was kept.
The two assailants took Patel to the second floor after pointing a gun at his head and looted another Rs 30 lakh lying there. The firm’s office is on the first floor while employees stay on the second floor, said police.
The assailants downed the shutter of the shop before running away and also fired in the air to keep chasers away. After hearing noises from inside the shop, someone opened the shutter and let out the employees.
According to police, preliminary investigations have revealed that though the firm claimed to be in courier business, the employees had no documents or registration papers to prove the same. There was no visible activity at the spot to even suggest that a courier business was being run from there. The presence of such a large amount of money indicates that the firm was involved in hawala (transfer) of cash from Gujarat to Agra.
ADG (Agra zone) Rajeev Krishna said that they have some clues about the assailants and are also scanning the Cctv footage. He added that one of the employees reached Kotwali and informed the police about the incident. Teams have been formed to nab the accused, he added.