Heist in a bullion showroom: Ornaments and worth nearly three crore looted in Sultanpur districts Chowk market
BK Singh
Five armed bandits entered the showroom of a gold and silver dealer in Sultanpur district and looted cash and gold ornaments worth crores.
This daring broad daylight armed robbery in the busy Chowk market of the city has spread sensation putting a question mark on the law and order situation in the state.
In fact the government is serious about maintaining law and order but not the police. There is no fear of the khaki, the men in uniform, because of the high level of corruption in this department.
Barring a handful of good cops the entire police force is rusted. They don’t work without bribes and in case they do it is out of compulsion or pressure from superiors or politicians.
Even young and fresh sub-inspectors are learning ways to squeeze money and tricks of the trade from superiors.
Most of them flaunt swanky cars. Five years ago they were hand to mouth and suddenly this show of extravaganza points to great corruption in the department.
SUV has replaced Daroga Ji’s Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in many cases. Where is the money coming from.
On their part, a few senior cops come into the category of Mr Clean’s image. So it is the dearth of honest men that policing in the state is failing.
On the face of it, cops appear to be the busiest among other departments.
Their general response time is abysmally low.
They usually reach much later after a crime is committed and leave loopholes in investigations for the benefit of the accused.
In this case, the dacoits took away Rs 3 lakh in cash and put all the gold in a bag before escaping.
The victim Bharat Soni was at his shop in Thatheri Bazar along with his son, another bullion dealer, and a servant Ram Bahadur, when five men arrived on two-wheelers. Two of them were wearing helmets.
They whipped out revolvers and pistols attacked and injured the servant and snatched his mobile phone when he resisted.
After filling their bags with the booty they escaped on their vehicles.
When police came in they insisted on the presence of just three persons but the CCTV camera recorded the presence of five robbers.
When five persons are involved in such incidents the crime in legal language is labeled in the category of heinous crime ie dacoity….and dacoity is a serious crime for which cops get a bad entry. This is why the policemen insisted that only three accused were involved. This is called minimization of crime. Minimization of crime is itself an illegal act for which cops could be held accountable but the senior officers usually don’t punish juniors for such lapses paving the way for increasing crime and lessening the level of alertness.
The SP, SSP, and other officers rushed to the place of crime conducted a survey, and talked in detail to the showroom owner.
Sniffer dogs were summoned along with a forensic team.
The SSP directed the formation of six teams to work out the case.
STF is also working in coordination with police.
IG Praveen Kumar convened a meeting at his office to discuss the case.
Police said they have no idea about the cost of ornaments.
Late night ADG Zone SB Shirodkar also rushed to the district on instructions from the government. He had a meeting with the IG at the city Kotwali.
On the other hand business and trading community in Sultanpur is highly agitated over the manner in which the crime has been committed. They have demanded swift working out of the case and recovery of the robbed goods.
