Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Mar 13: Two strangers who came in a motor bike at Shirur Laxmi-Sumeet building belonging to Sri Laxmivarateertha Swamiji of Shirur Math here threatened a few employees of a store belonging to 'More for You' chain of supermarkets and took away about Rs 2,70,000 in cash and scores of coupons from the drawers. In the incident, which happened between 6.30 and 6.40 am on Monday March 13, the robbers also attacked the manager of the store, identified as Praveen, and left him injured in the ear.

The said store is located in the basement of the said commercial building on the road from the city to Manipal within the limits of Manipal. The robbers who came with their helmets on, which they did not remove even when entering the shop that had just been opened by a handful of employees for setting the shop ready for the day and to receive goods and vegetables which arrive during the early hours everyday, entered the shop and threatened the employees. The young robbers, who appeared to be aged between 30 and 35, were wearing helmets even when they came into the shop and flashed the swords and daggers they had brought with them. They ordered the employees to open the cash drawers and took away cash and coupons on which they could lay their hands on. The manager of the shop, who resisted initially, suffered injury to his ear.

It seemed to be a handiwork of people who appeared to be aware that huge amount of cash is kept inside the store and that the collection could be considerable taking into the fact that sales proceeds of Saturday and Sunday were not remitted because banks were closed.

The shop neither has a CCTV camera nor a night watchman. Manipal police, who arrived at the spot, have undertaken the task of verifying CCTV footage of the cameras installed in the neighbourhood. Because of the fact that the shop is located below the ground level out of view of the road users, and also as it was too early in the morning, the incident did not attract public attention till the robbers completed their task within a few minutes and fled with the booty.

The employees of the store said that the youngsters spoke in Kannada when instructing them to open the drawers and that the faces of robbers were covered by helmets.