74-year-old robbed of lakhs at gunpoint

A 73-year-old man who was an accredited journalist in Rajasthan for five years in the 1950s, was robbed of Rs. 2.8 lakhs and some gold jewellery at gunpoint by two unidentified assailants at his Laxmi Nagar home in East Delhi on Tuesday, police said.

A 73-year-old man who was an accredited journalist in Rajasthan for five years in the 1950s, was robbed of Rs. 2.8 lakhs and some gold jewellery at gunpoint by two unidentified assailants at his Laxmi Nagar home in East Delhi on Tuesday, police said.

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According to police, the incident occurred around 2 pm when Brahmdev Sharma was allegedly alone at his first-floor residence at West Angad Nagar. His wife Kamla had gone to visit the doctor.

“Sharma was feeding pigeons at his balcony when he was approached by two men on a motorcycle,” said K.C Dwivedi, deputy commissioner of police, East Delhi.

The men had their faces covered with mufflers and were apparently in their mid-twenties, police said.

“Sharma asked them to come in after the men told him they wanted to discuss some property-related issue,” said Dwivedi.

According to police, Sharma has two sons, Rajesh and Sudhir – who are builders in Gurgaon.

As soon as the men gained entry, they put a country-made pistol to Sharma’s head and demanded that he direct them to every valuable he had in his cupboard, police said.

“Everything happened in a matter of four to five minutes,” said Sharma.

“They were calm and polite. Besides, there’s nothing that I could have done in front of them. So, I asked them to open the cupboard and take whatever they wanted,” said a tearful Sharma.

Sharma and his wife have allegedly been registered with the Delhi Police’s Senior Citizen’s Cell for the past four years.
“The beat constables visit us once in about 20 days,” he said.

As per figures released by the Delhi Police, 9,08,973 homes were surveyed in a door-to-door survey conducted in 2008.

52,983 senior citizens were identified out of which only 8,864 have registered till date.

“As per the scheme, a beat constable is supposed to visit a senior citizen as per the latter’s requirement and at least once a week,” said a police officer.