Residents lynch two robbers near Ghaziabad

Unlike Sunday's incident (reported in Hindustan Times) when dozens of people just stood by and watched while two robbers shot dead a 55-year-old railway engineer in Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad, residents of Pilkhuwa town decided to take matters in their own hands. They lynched two robbers.

On Monday night a gang of robbers, belonging to the dreaded Ansaar gang from Meerut, targeted railway employee Radhey Shyam Tomer's three-story house at 1am on Monday night in Shamli area.

One of the robbers, Shahid Farmood, reportedly held three Tomer men hostage at gunpoint, while the others waited outside for a signal from him to enter the house.

But Tomer's neighbour Deepak Kumar noticed some suspicious activity outside their house and he immediately alerted his brothers.

Kumar and his brothers then attacked the robbers with sticks and managed to nab one of them, who carried a country-made weapon.

"When we nabbed a robber, the others opened fire at us and I was hit on my shoulder. There was chaos all over as other neighbours also arrived after hearing the shots. The other robber inside the house was also overpowered by the three residents," said Deepak Kumar.

Later, the angry residents severely beat up the two robbers that ultimately led to their deaths. "After the people bashed up the two robbers, one died on the spot while the other died on way to the hospital. Before his died he revealed the names of the others involved who managed to escape. We have sent teams to nab them," senior superintendent of police (SSP) Raghubir Lal said.

Police said the two dead robbers were in the age group of 20-24 years and were involved in over a dozen criminal-cases reported in Ghaziabad and Meerut.

First Published: Jul 27, 2011 00:54 IST