Dec 30: A gang of quick-witted, nattily clothed youths looted several automobile spareparts dealers at the busy Lamington Road area on Tuesday.At around 1.30 pm on Tuesday, a gang of well-dressed youths posing as Income Tax officers, stole Rs 1.25 lakh at gun-point from three shops situated inside Sanjay Chambers and coolly walked out even as the V P Road cops, alerted by the owner of the shop targeted first, walked in to investigate the matter. This is the second such major dacoity in the last three days in the area, compelling the agitated auto spare-parts dealers, mainly Sikhs, to organise a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss security against the growing menace.
In the first incident on Saturday evening, a gang of six youths armed with katta (crude handgun) and choppers had looted over Rs 2.37 lakh from several shops at Shrikrishna Pant building in the area.
However, even as Deputy Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh, the chief invitee to the programme, assured the traders that the
police will quickly catch the gangs involved in these crimes, the dealers did not seem convinced. Some shouted ``shame, shame.''
``Today's dacoity was executed with such finesse by the dozen-odd young Marathi-speaking robbers that the onlookers did not even suspect that a crime was in progress,'' said businessman Vikas Shah, who was their first victim on Tuesday afternoon. Reportedly, two of the gangsters kept vigil outside the shop and told the passers-by to stay clear as an I-T raid was in progress. ``Naturally the neighbouring shopkeepers stayed away on hearing the dreaded word `raid' and the robbers armed with two guns and several choppers looted Rs 25,000 from my shop before quietly hopping on to the next where they fleeced Rs 50,000 using the same modus operandi,'' said the harried trader adding that he did not raise an alarm immediately as the daring youths had threatened to kill him.
Their last stop was at the spare-parts shop of Jaswant C Shah, from where they again looted Rs 50,000 cash, made a
quiet exit from the building and disappeared in the crowd. Surprisingly, though, the gangsters also exhibited their sense of humour. ``On realising that some of the shopkeepers did not have much cash in their drawers, the gang simply walked out without taking any money and complemented the traders for being `good tax payers'!'' said one dealer who was spared today. An eyewitness, Gurcharan Singh Anand, said, ``The robbers were such smooth operators that they did not even run after coming out of the building, which is why the V P Road cops did not suspect them when they walked in. DCP Singh suspects the robberies to be an insiders job. "Or else the gangs would not have been so confident,'' he said.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
