Robbers brutally killed an employee of a jewellery shop in south suburban Madipakkam on Thursday and fled with at least 3 kg of gold worth Rs 75 lakh, police said.
The incident took place in broad daylight at Sri Balaji Bankers Jewellers and Pawnbrokers in the busy market area on the Sadasivan Nagar main road. The robbers also took the surveillance camera installed in the shop while fleeing, said sources.
The incident came to light when a woman went to the shop to make some enquiries about pledged ornaments. As she did not see anyone at the counter, she enquired at a photo-copying shop nearby.
A man from the shop went inside the jewellery shop and found Madan Singh, 17, lying dead in pool of blood in the locker room. His throat was slit using a sharp knife.
Mr Mohan Lal, a native of Rajasthan residing at Yogeswara Street owns the shop. The deceased too is from the same state.
The police suspect that a three-member gang had executed the murder and robbery at around 4 pm.
“It looks like two of them went inside the shop while the other waited outside to keep watch,” a police official who is part of the investigation team, said.
The victim had come from his village only six months back and was not very fluent in Tamil. “It seems the killers, after collecting the key to the safety lockers from him, took him inside the locker room and murdered him before escaping with the gold,” the police added, pointing out that the killers had not touched the gold kept in the show case.