1 killed, 2 injured as robbers open fire in gold finance firm

An employee of a leading gold finance firm was killed and two of his colleagues were injured after a gang of five armed robbers Friday stormed into their office here and opened fire, a police official said.

The incident occurred around 11.30 am and the robbers fled from the spot without looting any valuables, he said.

"A gang of five masked robbers, wielding pistols and an axe, stormed into the office of Muthoot Finance located near City Centre Mall in Untwadi locality of the city. At that time, five employees of the firm and eight customers were present there. The robbers snatched away their mobile phones," Nashik Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre-Patil said.

"They wanted to loot cash from the office. However, they panicked after one of the employees switched on the siren. After that, the robbers fired five rounds, in which computer engineer of the firm, Sajju Samuel (32), a resident of of Kerala, died on the spot," he said.

Branch manager Chandrashekhar Deshpande (64) and auditor Kailash Jain (25) suffered injuries in the incident. They were admitted to Nashik Civil Hospital, he said.

The robbers fled from the spot, Nangre-Patil said, adding that a dog squad and forensic experts have been pressed into service and a 'nakabandi' operation is being on conducted to trace the culprits.

Later, a case was registered against the unidentified accused at Ambad police station under IPC section 396 (dacoity with murder) and the Arms Act.