E-Paper
Dacoity in Bilhaur, one killed
A WOMAN was killed and five others of a family were injured in a dacoity in Uttari village under Bilhaur police station in the wee hours on Saturday.
A WOMAN was killed and five others of a family were injured in a dacoity in Uttari village under Bilhaur police station in the wee hours on Saturday.
Dacoits equipped with fire arms and sharp edged weapons raided the house of a puffed rice (laiya) factory owner in the village and looted jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh and a large amount in cash.
The deceased has been identified as Ritu Singh (22), wife of Prashant Singh, who is in the Indian Army and is posted in Jammu. The injured have been identified as Chhatrapal Singh (54), Indra (50), wife of Chhatrapal, Suraj Singh (23), Rishi Singh (20) and Prasoon (18).
Chhatrapal Singh and Suraj Singh were admitted to a private hospital whereas the other injured were admitted to LLR hospital on Saturday.The condition of Chhatrapal and Suraj was stated to be critical.
According to information, around 2 am on Saturday, a number of miscreants, who according to Priyanka, daughter of Chhatrapal, were residents of the same village (one of the miscreants worked as a labourer in Chhatrapal’s factory), entered the house through the back door.
All the family members were sleeping on the terrace of the house. One of the miscreants first snatched the ear-rings of Priyanka. She woke up and recognised the miscreant. When she tried to scream, the miscreants gagged her.
The miscreants then started thrashing every member of the family and broke open the locker on the ground floor of the house. There Ritu tried to offer resistance but the miscreants killed her by hitting her on the head with a cricket bat.
Priyanka told Hindustan Times, “I was the first to know about the miscreants. There were 12 inside the house and an equal number were standing outside the house.”
She recognised some of the miscreants as Mahendra, Ashok Kureel, who according to Priyanka was a labourer in her father’s factory, Malkhan, Ram Asre, Narasimha and Tewari Lal. All are residents of the same village.
On hearing the screams of the family, some neighbours informed the police. This time police rushed to the spot within half an hour of the incident and nabbed four miscreants in Uttari village.
Meanwhile, after the incident, senior police officials visited the area and police have cordoned off Uttari village and some adjoining villages in search of the remaining miscreants. The police have also recovered a .312 bore country made pistol, four cartridges and some iron rods from the place of the incident.
According to the police, the way the large number of miscreants executed dacoity in Chhatrapal’s house indicated that dacoity was not the prime objective.
Talking to Hindustan Times Circle Officer (CO) Bilhaur RP Arun said, “Police are investigating the case and the way the dacoity was executed indicates that the miscreants had rivalry with Chhatrapal Singh or his family members, otherwise why did they spare everyone after they were identified by Priyanka?”
