Robbers decamp with valuables

VADODARA, March 17: In a sensational incident, a gang of chaddi-banian dharis, struck at a house in the newly constructed Manokamna Socie...

VADODARA, March 17: In a sensational incident, a gang of chaddi-banian dharis, struck at a house in the newly constructed Manokamna Society on the city8217;s outskirts, less than half-a-km from National Highway No. 8, and decamped with gold ornaments worth over Rs 10,000. They also injured three occupants of the house.

According to details, at about 3.30 am seven masked robbers speaking a Gujarati dialect and armed with fresh neem sticks, barged into Shrikant Mandal8217;s two-room tenement by breaking the main door with a bolder weighing about 25 kg. The bedroom door was similarly broken.

When Mandal, who works as a medical representative with Tata Pharma, resisted their move, he was assaulted with sticks and fractured hs right hand. His wife, who tried to help him, was also injured on the forehead.

Both have been admitted to the Shreyas Hospital. They had shifted to this house just two months ago from Yogeshwar Society in Makarpura area.

Mandal said the miscreants had bolted all houses in the neighbourhood from outside to ensure that nobody could come to their assistance even if an alarm was raised. 8220;When I called for help, my father, a retired Air Force personnel, who lives in the neighbouring house, found his main door shut from outside. Luckily, the robbers had forgotten to bolt his backdoor and he rushed to my help8221;, Mandal said.

Though his father Kubhlal Mandal overpowered one of the robbers, another gangster hit him hard on his forehead with a piece of stone, injuring him seriously, according to PI G J Sindhi of Makaprura police station. However, they then immediately took to heels as neighbours had by that time woken up and managed to rush to his house. Kubhlal is undergoing treatment in Maharani Shantadevi Hospital.

Mandal said the robbers snatched his gold chain and his wife8217;s earrings.Rita Parmar, a resident, told Express Newsline that the doors installed by builders were of poor quality and could give in easily. She added that Mandal8217;s house did not have iron grills, as in all other houses, making it an easy target.

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When asked, society8217;s watchman Rambhai Baria said he had made a round of the society just a few minutes before the incident took place. 8220;On hearing noise of disturbance, I rushed to the spot but the robbers had escaped by then8221;, he said, claiming that this was the first such incident in the colony during the past three years. According to him, of the 38 houses, only 18 were occupied.

Baria said that robbers escaped onto the highway through bushes and trees behind the society. Sindhi said the robbers8217; modus operandi indicated that they were adivasis from Madhya Pradesh. Commissioner of Police, J Mahapatra, who visited the society, said that he had instructed the police to intensify patrolling in colonies on city peripheries.

According to the police, this is the sixth attack by the chaddi-banian dhari gang in Vadodara city and rural district during the last one year. Earlier, the gang had killed three persons in a farmhouse in J P Road area and brutally assaulted more than six people at a farmhouse under Vadodara taluka police station in May last.