Jewellers' murder raises tempers in Mumbai

Mumbai: Mumbai crime branch officials revealed yesterday that the four men who brutally killed 48-year-old Paras Parmar and his employee Hemant Bishnoi, 35, on Wednesday and looted 8 kg of gold and Rs 15 lakh in cash, were involved in a similar crime that took place in Vile Parle last year.

The attackers stabbed the jeweller and his manager around 5 pm on the walk over bridge in Malad (West) while they were carrying the small fortune. Crime Branch officers said they have details of the quartet, which allegedly wounded and robbed a jeweller of a substantial amount of gold at Vile Parle in 2011. "The four are history-sheeters and have committed such crimes in the past as well," said a police officer from Mumbai crime branch.

Officials from Malad police station said Parmar, who is a resident of Raheja township in Malad (East), had got 11 kg of gold on Wednesday and after selling some of it to jewellers at Natraj Market, he and Bishnoi went to a bank in Malad (West) and withdrew Rs 15 lakh. Cops said that after killing the victims, the assailants took the gold, got into a rickshaw by threatening the driver at knifepoint and asked him to drive towards Liberty Garden. They then forced the driver out of the three-wheeler and escaped with the vehicle.

Funeral protest
On Thursday, a three-hour agitation by members of Mumbai Jewellers' Association, in which they blocked SV road at Malad, reportedly forced the police chief to hand over the reins of the double murder probe to Crime Branch. About 200 jewellers gathered at New Era Theatre around 11.30 am and left the place at about 2.30 pm after they were given assurance by Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy that the case would be handled by four units of the Crime Branch.

Members of the jewellers' association, who held the protest, maintained that this case proved they were no longer safe. "We have begun investigations. We will prepare the data of the gang members who are suspected to be behind these murders," said Roy. Crime Branch officers said they are tracing the auto rickshaw that the killers used to flee the spot. "The killers had threatened the rickshaw driver, and after reaching Liberty Garden area, they threw him out and fled with the vehicle," said a Crime Branch officer.

Feeling of loss
Meanwhile, the bodies of Parmar and Bishnoi have been handed over to their respective families. Abhishek Parmar, a relative of the jeweller, said that the entire family is in shock. "Paras is from Barmer, Rajasthan and all his relatives stay there," he said. Bishnoi, who is a resident of Navghar in Bhayender (West), was a chartered accountant, who had been working for Parmar since the past one month. He has a 4-year-old son, and was rushing home on Wednesday to celebrate the child's birthday.