At gunpoint: Currency exchange shop loses Rs2.2m in robbery

Six guards have been taken into custody by the police.

KARACHI:

A currency exchange shop at II Chundrigar was looted of Rs2.2 million at gunpoint on Saturday.

Four men, including a veiled suspect, came to the shop, Galaxy Money Changer, on two motorcycles while 20 employees were present inside at nearly 10am. “They came and sat like customers,” recalled an employee. As soon as the cashier came from the strong-room with a bag full of local and foreign currencies, they pulled out their guns and snatched the bag, he added. The two suspects, who had come inside, immediately made a run for their lives and escaped with their two accomplices.

The employees informed the police, who sent investigators to collect evidence and the security camera footage. Five private security guards were present inside the shop but the robbers managed to escape without any resistance.



“Three security guards were deployed inside and two others were deployed outside at the time of robbery,” DSP Qamar Ahmed told The Express Tribune, quoting the footage recovered from the CCTV cameras. “None of the guards even tried to move, which raised suspicions about them.”

The police and the employees suspected that the robbers were well-trained and they came with proper details. “It is obvious the guards told them [suspects] of all the details,” speculated DSP Ahmed. “They chose the right timings for the robbery.” The police have detained all the guards, including Omar Khan, Arshad and Ali Nawaz. Khan had spent nearly 12 years in jail for a robbery, he added.

In fact, SHO Yar Muhammad Rind said they have also detained the sixth guard who was on sick leave. “We are going to register a case against them based on what the management of the exchange company told us,” he said. DSP Ahmed also suspected that the veiled suspect was not a woman but a man trying to take suspicions off the group.

According to Rind, the guards were hired from two separate private security companies - Ababeel and VVIPs. The robbery case was being registered on behalf of the exchange company manager, Faisal Memon, who told the police that their guards were involved. According to Memon, the bag contained Rs2.2 million in local and foreign currencies, including Euros and Dollar.

A similar robbery took place in the same exchange company in 2007 and the culprits were arrested. The police said they will question them as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2013.