Morning prayer ritual proves costly for two city traders!

LUCKNOW: Offering prayers to the Almighty soon after opening their shops proved costly for two Lucknow traders. In back-toback incidents, miscreants decamped with ornaments and cash from a jewellery and a mobile phone store respectively as the shop owners said their morning prayers.

When mobile phone shop owner Sunil Singh Bhakuni opened his store in Utharatia market on Raebareli road at around 9.30am on Friday, little did he know what awaited him. No sooner had he place his bag containing ₹2 lakh and some documents on the display counter and got busy with his morning prayers, than the money went missing.

“It took me just 3-4 minutes to pray, and within this time the bag was gone,” said Bhakuni. He said some locals saw two youths outside his shop at the time he was praying. “I have lodged a police complaint against unidentified accused with the PGI police station and requested cops to retrieve video footage from the CCTV cameras installed on the road,” he added.

Meanwhile, AK Rai of PGI police station said the matter was under investigation.

In a similar incident on Thursday morning, two miscreants decamped with jewellery worth ₹8 lakh from a shop in Indira Nagar while the owner was offering prayers after opening his store.

“Everything happened within 15 seconds,” said jeweller Arvind Pal, adding that he learnt of the theft within minutes when he saw that his bag of ornaments had disappeared.

Pal’s shop, Shagun Jewellers, is located in the crowded Takrohi market and he opened it around 10.30am.

“As always, I placed the bag on the counter and started offering prayers to God. As soon as I turned around to place the ornaments in the display shelves, I saw that the bag was gone,” he said. Pal said on checking CCTV camera footage, he saw that a youth had entered the shop and quitely walked away with the bag. “His accomplice was waiting outside on a motorcycle,” he added.

Station officer Indira Nagar police station Mukul Verma said, “Initial probe suggests the miscreants conducted a proper recee and were well aware of the shop owner’s daily routine.”

The police are also checking the previous day’s video footage to find clues, said Pal.

› As always, I placed the bag on the counter and started offering prayers to God. As soon as I turned around to place the ornaments in the display shelves, I saw that the bag was gone ARVIND PAL, jeweller