In a daring daylight robbery, 12 masked men stormed into a goldsmith’s workshop at Petlaburj in Hyderabad and robbed 5 kg gold by holding the staff at knifepoint on Tuesday.

To evade arrest, the dacoits damaged the CCTV cameras surrounding the area and also took away the recorded digital video tapes.

Police said that there were 21 workers working in the shop at the time of the incident. 

The gang members reportedly came on motorbikes.  

The workshop belonged to a Mumbai based jewellery maker. It was managed by Nethai Das and Sahed Das.  

According to Telangana Today, at around 1 pm, 10-12 masked men barged into the workshop while the workers were busy. Armed with sharp weapons, the dacoits held the staff at knife-point and threatened them from raising any alarm. 

The staff were held hostage for more than an hour, and the dacoits made away with gold ornaments weighing 5 kg from the chest.

The New Indian Express reported that the dacoits tied and gagged all the employees using ropes and plasters. As they were trying to open a chest, the manager Dipankar entered the room and he was also immediately restrained.

South Zone DCP V Satyanarayana told TT, “Though they had sharp weapons, they used them only to threaten the workers. No one was injured.”

CLUES team and dog squad were deployed to gather evidence and solve the crime.

As the crime was done with such precision by destroying evidence, police suspect an insider’s or former employee’s involvement.

Acting swiftly, police took five suspects into custody and recovered some gold within a couple of hours. 

Twelve police teams had been formed to nab the absconding accused.

Last year, in December, unidentified burglars had broken into a jewellery store at Bakaram, Musheerbad and decamped with 30 tolas of gold along with Rs 2 lakh cash. To evade arrest, the burglars used chilli powder so that the sniffer dogs wouldn’t be able to track them.