After a jeweller was shot in Rishikesh area, members of the jewellers’ fraternity closed their shops in protest and gave a memorandum to the police. They said that the crimes against jewellers and businessmen in the area are increasing at an alarming rate. The jeweller who was shot on Sunday night has been identified as Virendra Singh Chauhan, owner of Sakshi Jewellers. According to the doctors, the injury that the bullet inflicted might affect his walking ability in future.

Superintendent of Police (rural) Parmendra Dobhal said, “The victim’s operation is still going on. According to the doctors he will survive, however the bullet that hit him has injured his  back bone, which may affect his walking ability.”

He added, “We are starting the investigation from scratch as so far we have not found any eye witnesses or evidence from the crime scene. Also, the victim is in no state to give any statement. The investigation may take time but we will catch the culprits.”

When asked about the CCTV footage from the area he said, “We are checking the CCTV footage. We got some help from it too; we will soon reach to a conclusion. We have made four teams which are investigating different leads.”

When asked about the number of suspects, he said, “At the time of actual crime there was only one person, though we think that one person was on a motorcycle. So, we are searching for two. There was no official complaint filed by the victim or his family earlier, but now they have come. A case will be filed soon. Right now we are treating this as a case of loot, because a bag and keys to the shop were not found on the victim.”