Hyderabad Muthoot Finance robbery: Woman staffer pressed the emergency alarm

Hyderabad: Four unidentified men armed with pistols, knives and a hacksaw targeted a Muthoot Finance branch located less than half-a-kilometre from the police station in Mailardevpally on Tuesday morning.

Branch manager Mr Abdul Latheef S. rushed to a window and started screaming, while a woman employee pressed the emergency alarm.

The building owner and workers from a nearby construction site rushed to the office. Unnerved by this unexpected turn of events, the robbers rushed to the exit, threatened the people coming to the rescue, and sped away in a waiting car. Latheef arrived at around 9.45 am and he welcomed the first customers of the day.

“They asked for a loan against the gold jewellery and I assured them that they can get loan, but they should produce their Aadhar card as proof.” he said.

What happened in the next few moments was something which he never even had dreamt of in his bad dreams.

“Two persons jumped on to the counter. When I started shouting, they closed the window and pinned me to the wall and aimed a pistol at me,” Mr Latheef recalls.

“Hearing my screams, a few people came to help, but the suspects threatened them with knives and escaped,” he added.

According to the police, seven persons participated in the attempted robbery. Four entered the office while three sat in the car (TS 07EB 3711) that wasparked nearby. The car was spotted moving towards Aramghar, a senior Cyberabad police official said.