Police said the incident took place at around 3.30 pm on the service lane adjacent to the Raj Bhavan colony on Mahatma Gandhi Marg and opposite Axis Bank. The robbery took is just a couple of kilometres from the official residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the state Assembly.
"The people in the van were going to the bank after collecting cash (in a bag) from different branches. The deceased has been identified as Indramohan, who was the gunner with the private cash van. The driver of the van and the custodian have also been seriously injured in the incident," Additional Superintendent of Police (Lucknow East) Sarvesh Mishra said.
The police further added "We are going through the CCTV footage and also the footage obtained from various points, from where cash was collected to trace the culprit," Mishra said.
The opposition took no time to react this, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress lashed out at the BJP-led government in the state. In a statement, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, "With the crime graph of the state rising, who will come to invest in the state or set up industries? The BJP has blocked the development of the state and has, in fact, started investing in the development of crime."
He claimed that an amount of Rs 20 lakh was looted from the cash van. A similar claim was also made by the Congress.
The incident comes a day after a man open fired at a restaurant owner after a small scuffle at Sultanpur's Avantica restaurant.
(with additional input from agencies)