Elderly couple foil robbery bid, 1 arrested

The men got hold of some gold ornaments and stabbed the 78-year-old man, but one of them was nabbed by neighbours after the couple cried out for help

MUMBAI: A 78-year-old Kurla resident and his wife were injured on Tuesday when two men entered their house to commit a robbery under the guise of being courier agents. The men got hold of some gold ornaments and stabbed the 78-year-old man, but one of them was nabbed by neighbours after the couple cried out for help. He was later handed over to the police.

Elderly couple foil robbery bid, 1 arrested

According to the police, Bastimal Manot, 78, and his wife Ugambi Manot, 74, live in an apartment on the third floor of a residential complex on New Mill Road in Kurla West. While they run a laundry in Chembur, one of their sons, a doctor, lives in Mahim while another son stays in Tilak Nagar. Two of their daughters live in Pune and the third stays in Malad.

On Tuesday, when Ugambi was returning from a marriage in the afternoon, the two men started following her, saying they were courier agents, and tried to enter their house. When Bastimal tried to stop them, they pushed him away, said police officials.

“They both started assaulting the senior citizen couple after that. One of the men grabbed his wife near the mouth and even placed a knife on Bastimal’s neck, asking them to remove all their valuables,” said a police officer.

When they let go of Bastimal after taking his gold chain and began searching the cupboard, he immediately cried out for help. “The accused then came towards him, stabbed him and ran out of the house,” the police officer added.

Their neighbour Nimesh Singh, who had heard the couple’s cries for help, saw the duo fleeing and managed to catch hold of one of them. He was identified as Bipin Chandra Bisht, 32, who lives in Dadar under a flyover. Bisht, who was subsequently handed over to the police, is an accused in a case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and he was released recently on bail. His accomplice in the robbery bid was identified as Mithun, said police.

Both the accused have been booked under sections 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 309 (6) (voluntarily causing hurt while committing or attempting to commit robbery), 333 (house-trespass with the intent to cause hurt, assault, wrongful restraint, or put someone in fear) and 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Bastimal’s condition is said to be stable and he is recuperating at Bhabha hospital in Kurla.