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Chandigarh: Elderly woman looted of gold, cash at gunpoint
Police said four masked men barged into SCF (shop-cum-flat) number 1 in Sector 27, Chandigarh, where Raksha Sharma lives alone, at 3.10am and robbed her at “gunpoint”
An 82-year-old woman was held hostage at “gunpoint” in her first-floor flat and robbed of gold jewellery worth ₹40 lakh besides ₹35,000 cash in the Sector 27 market of Chandigarh early on Tuesday.
Police said four masked men barged into SCF (shop-cum-flat) number 1, where Raksha Sharma lives alone, at 3.10am and robbed her at “gunpoint”. The assailants caught hold of her while she was sleeping. They threatened her, saying, “We will slit your throat if you don’t cooperate.” They tied her hands, gagged her, and demanded the keys to her valuables.
One of the robbers forced her to open the purse, from which they took ₹37,000 in cash, along with jewellery. Sharma told them that she would hand over the jewellery, but they should not harm her.
It took the robbers half-an-hour to ransack the house and flee with the jewellery and the cash after restraining the elderly woman, who later reported the incident to the police. After ransacking the room, the robbers even took her gold rings and bangles.
Police sources said the woman’s husband passed away due to age-related ailments last year. Their only son is based abroad. The couple owned the hardware shop on the ground floor and stayed on the first floor. After they left, she called a tea vendor for help, who untied her. Sharma’s son, who lives abroad, was informed of the incident, and the police were notified.
Police said the intruders gained entry by climbing the grill of a transformer adjoining the house.
The robbers tied the woman’s hands, and one of them pressed a weapon to her head, which she believed to be a gun, while the others ransacked the house for valuables.
The woman said the robbers were speaking in Haryanvi accent. “They seemed to know exactly where to find the valuables,” she told the police, indicating the involvement of someone who knew about the house.
A team of the Chandigarh Police and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) gathered evidence, including sharp-edged weapons, left behind by the robbers.
Upon inspection, the police later confirmed that it was not a gun, but rather an iron-made object designed to resemble a gun.
