HYDERABAD: In a daring robbery, two robbers Sunday looted 20 kg gold from the employees of a courier company at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad near here, the police said.
The heist occurred Sunday morning near the cargo complex when eight employees of Marudhar Courier Services were shifting four boxes containing gold from one vehicle to the other.
According to the courier company employees, two unidentified men threatened with revolver the driver of the ciourier company's Santro car, ordered him and another man out of the vehicle, and fled in the same car with the gold, valued over Rs.20 million. Other employees were standing near another vehicle a few feet away.
The employees claimed that the robbers disappeared before they could raise an alarm. The gold was brought from Mumbai around 9.30 a.m. by a Jet Airways flight.
The Cyberabad police alerted the police of Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medak and surrounding districts to track down the vehicle. Immediately after the robbery, the police sealed a few routes and were checking vehicles in areas around the airport.
Cyberabad police commissioner Prabhakar Reddy, who visited the scene of crime, announced Rs.50,000 reward for information leading to the tracking down of the vehicle.
He said the version of the courier company's employees was being verified. The police officials were questioning them.
The airport at Shamshabad, about 35 km from city, became operational in March this year. The robbery raised questions on the security at the airport.
This was the second time that the same courier company was targeted by robbers. A gang of robbers looted seven kilogram of gold near Nampally railway station in the heart of the city Nov 6, 2005.
The robbers, who were armed with swords, stopped the car in broad daylight and looted the gold, which was being transferred by the employees to company's office in Begum Bazar after it was brought from Mumbai by train.
The police had later solved the gold heist by arresting seven robbers of Adhist Raj gang from Mumbai. The police suspect the same gang to be behind the latest robbery.
