True to salt, they risked their lives

They bravely fought three assailants, got shot at and stabbed, but saved their employer of 40 years Rs 10 lakh. Karan Choudhury reports.

They bravely fought three assailants, got shot at and stabbed, but saved their employer of 40 years Rs 10 lakh.

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Like every other day, Baldev Singh, a 72-year-old grandfather and manager at the Bharat Petroleum pump in South Extension Part-I, was on his way to the State Bank of India branch to deposit cash earned over the weekend. His colleague SK Bajaj (65) had accompanied him.

Lying on the hospital bed, the heavily bandaged Singh said, “I was holding the briefcase containing the money and Bajaj was walking right behind me. When we got to the bank, three men stabbed my hand with a knife and one shot at my back. They then asked me to hand over the bag. For a moment, I could not react. They started beating me up. I do not know how I managed but I threw the briefcase to Bajaj.”

Bajaj then ran towards the bank even as the assailants kept on hitting him and slashed his arm. He just managed to hand over the bag to another bank customer Rajender Singh, who hastily handed it over to bank guard Ashok Kumar.

A police van rushed the bleeding victims to AIIMS Trauma Centre, from where the petrol pump staff transferred them to Healing Touch nursing home in Malviya Nagar.

Bajaj was discharged after treatment of his arms which had knife-inflicted wounds. Singh is still undergoing treatment at the nursing home, but he is reported stable.