Four masked men rob Connaught Place eatery despite tight security
In a daring pre-dawn heist inside one of the Capital’s most secure commercial districts, four masked men armed with knives broke into a restaurant in Connaught Place and fled with over Rs 6.67 lakh in cash and three mobile phones on Friday.
The incident has sent shock waves in the traders’ community in CP area since this happened when the entire Lutyens’ Zone has been under constant vigil due to the presence of prominent world leaders as well as global CEOs for the AI Summit.
The robbery took place around 4 am on February 20 at Karigari Restaurant in Scindia House, barely a kilometre from several high-security establishments and police installations. The case has been registered at Barakhamba Road Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The crime spot is equidistant from Barakhamba Police Station and Parliament Street Police Station.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Ramesh Shukla (32), a maintenance in-charge at the restaurant, was inside the premises when the incident unfolded. A native of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Shukla told police that he had completed his shift at midnight but stayed back at the restaurant after closing hours.
Around 4 am, he heard a loud noise from downstairs and rushed to check. What he saw stunned him: four men with their faces covered in cloth standing near the cash counter. They were carrying knives.
Shukla raised an alarm, shouting “chor-chor”, but the men did not confront him. Instead, they fled towards the rear side of the building and scaled a wall to escape, police said.
The security guard on duty, Arun Dutt Singh, was alerted and attempted to look for the suspects outside, but they had already disappeared into the darkness.
A preliminary inspection revealed that a locker near the cash counter had been broken open. The cash drawer was damaged. Police said the Rs 6,67,638 kept inside the locker was missing. Two mobile phones belonging to the restaurant and one phone belonging to the security guard were also stolen.
