Dacoits flee before gun toting landlord

The unidentified culprits broke the electric light in the porch of Kapare’s bungalow by pelting stones around 2 a.m. But they fled without entering inside after Kapare, alerted by cries for help by his watchman Mahipati Sopan Phadtare, fired two shots in the air with his 12 bore rifle, police said.

Hanumanta Kapare, who has several farms in Hadapsar and Mundhawa areas, lives in his bungalow at an isolated place on the road linking Hadapsar with Mundhwa railway crossing.

This is the third time dacoits have struck in Hadapsar area since March. A labourer was killed by dacoits at Mahadeonagar in March. Four family members of a watchman working at the Ahura Garden project were killed by dacoits last month. None of the two earlier cases have been solved yet.