With iron rod, chemist thwarts robbery attempt

In a feat of confidence and quick thinking, a shopkeeper here has managed to fend off two armed robbers, forcing them to flee without causing financial or other damage.

On Jandiala Road on Friday night, chemist Sanjay Gupta, owner of Anmol Pharmaceutical, was sitting near the ‘galla’ (cash box) at his shop at around 9 pm, when two masked robbers arrived there on a bike.

The miscreants entered the shop with a pistol and a sharp edged weapon, threatening to kill Gupta if he did not hand them the cash kept in the cash box. The shopkeeper showed them the empty cash box, as he had cleared it — he did so routinely — before their arrival.

Amid a verbal altercation, the shopkeeper ran to his cabin, arming himself with an iron rod and thwarting the robbery attempt.

Gupta suspects that the robbers must have had a toy pistol, which is why they fled the spot. The shopkeeper said he tried to chase them, but they fled on the bike before he could.

DSP (City) Sukhbir Singh visited the spot on Saturday, and said a case has been registered in this regard.

The DSP lauded the shopkeeper’s confidence, and said the police was reviewing CCTV camera footage to trace the robbers.