According to the police, the shop, located opposite Swarn Cinema, had closed for the night. “Four employees were inside the shop balancing the books while one stood guard outside. On Tuesday night, one Kamal was designated for the job. Suddenly, five men arrived and demanded liquor. When Kamal informed them that the store was closed, they tried to bribe him,” said a senior police officer.

As the five refused to budge, Kamal called for help. Another employee, Sandeep, came outside with a lathi. The assailants then pointed a gun at him, grabbed his lathi and beat him up with it, police said. Sandeep fled the spot and the five turned to Kamal and instructed him to open the shutter.

“Inside the shop, the robbers snatched Rs 4 lakh from the cashier. When one of the helpers, Dal Chand, protested, the assailants smashed a beer bottle on his head. Before leaving, one of the assailants warned the staff not to follow them and fired two shots — one hit the ceiling while the other hit Ajay in the stomach,” said a police officer.

The assailants then fled the spot and the employees called a Police Control Room (PCR) van for help. Ajay was rushed to Hedgewar Hospital, where he was declared ‘dead on arrival’. Injured Dal Chand was discharged after treatment on Wednesday.

The shop manager, Vikas, told Newsline: “I was not present at the time of incident. But I don’t understand why they shot Ajay; he would not have followed them anyway. There is a CCTV camera inside the shop but it did not record the incident as its hard disk was corrupt. Only live images could be displayed on the CCTV cameras.”