Robbery at Mannapuram office in Agra: 19 kg gold looted, 2 dead in gunfight exchange with police

Hours after an armed gang of five robbers struck at Mannapuram Finance Limited office in Agra’s Kamla Nagar area on Saturday afternoon and fled with approximately 19 kg gold and Rs 5 lakh cash, two of the suspects were injured in an exchange of fire as the police zeroed in on them. They later died during treatment at a local hospital, police said.

The deceased have been identified as Manish Pandey and Nirdosh Kumar, residents of nearby Firozabad district.

 According to police, the gang took the staff hostage during the daylight heist.

Rajiv Krishna, ADG, Agra zone, said: “The facility had an alarm system, which immediately sent an SOS to the nearest police station. In this case, the response time of police was very little and teams reached the spot quickly. Two accused were eventually arrested after an exchange of gunfire; they died during treatment.”

Six teams have been formed to nab the other accused, Krishna said, adding that there will be more



arrests.

According to police officials, the accused entered the shop around 2 pm, armed with weapons. Local residents and eyewitnesses said they threatened to shoot people and ordered the staff to fill gold in their bags. The CCTV at the Manappuram office has captured four masked accused with backpacks crossing the road across the shop, before they fled.

Manappuram Finance Limited is one of India’s leading gold loan non-banking finance corporations.

Shortly after the incident, police said, an alert was issued across the district’s police stations to intercept suspects matching the description of the accused. Checking was initiated at more than 100 locations in the vicinity in order to intercept the accused. A few hours later, the accused were spotted in Etmadpur area of Agra.

As they tried to escape, police said they opened fire. The police returned fire, in which two suspects were grievously injured, and later died in hospital, officials said.