Family taken hostage in daring Gurgaon robbery

Masked robbers armed with daggers barged into the house of a corporate honcho in the early hours of Saturday and fled with jewellery worth lakhs of rupees along with cash. Leena Dhankhar reports.

Masked robbers armed with daggers barged into the house of a corporate honcho in the early hours of Saturday and fled with jewellery worth lakhs of rupees along with cash.

HT Image

The burglars struck at 4.45am at the upscale Exclusive Floors in DLF City, Phase-5.

The house owners — Nitin and Chetna Manglik — were away when the incident took place. While Nitin is a managing director in a software firm, his wife is the HR head in another company.

However, Nitin's 55-year-old mother, 8-year-old twin children and maid servant, who were present in the house at that time, were held hostage.

Police sources said Indrani Singh woke up around 4.45am on Saturday and saw a group of robbers in her room.

"When I opened my eyes, I saw masked men brandishing daggers. They asked me to keep mum else they would kill me and my grandchildren," she told HT.

"Five persons entered our house and their accomplices stood outside. They sneaked in by breaking open the backyard door. There was no security guard around the house in the morning," said Chetna.

The robbers took away jewellery along with R1.5 lakh apart from two mobile phones, she added.

The police claimed that the robbers had arrived in a car, which was parked at a distance.

"We will soon identify the culprits," said Maheshwar Dayal, DCP (Crime).

Aghast over the daring raid, resentment prevailed among residents over the issue of lax security in the area.

Residents expressed their shock as to how security guards failed to check the entry of miscreants into the gated community.

"I have noticed guards letting people in without proper verification," said Ashwini Narula, a resident of Block D of Exclusive Floors.