The Ghaziabad steel market remained close on Wednesday in protest against the robbery, in which Rs9.8 lakh was looted from a steel trader late on Tuesday in posh Raj Nagar residential locality under Kavi Nagar police station of this city.
Traders’ leader Shiv Shankar Rathi said earlier there were stray incidents when robbers used to loot cash from the traders when transporting cash on two-wheelers but now they started targeting traders in their cars under tight security.
Recollecting Tuesday night’s incident, he said that around 9.00 pm, Ramesh Goel, proprietor Rajat Steels, was returning to his residence at sector-9 Raj Nagar. Four robbers in an Esteem car overtook his Skoda car and forced his driver Dharamvir to stop. As the driver stopped the car, two criminals broke the glass pan of the driver side window and snatched the bag containing cash and fled.
The incident occurred in front of MlC Prashant Chaudhary’s residence where at least four security guards were there. There were two police posts on both sides of the spot. Shankar said it was the fourth incident in the last one year.
Ghaziabad SSP Nitin Tiwari said six teams have been constituted to arrest the robbers. He stressed the need of the community policing which will be started shortly to ensure the safety and security among the business community.