‘I’m proud I could get robbers caught’

Uma Ganatra, 61, who put up a fight against armed robbers who targeted her sister’s apartment on Saturday night, said the robbers were trying to make away with the locker in the house when she and her neighbour caught them stealing.

Uma Ganatra, 61, who put up a fight against armed robbers who targeted her sister’s apartment on Saturday night, said the robbers were trying to make away with the locker in the house when she and her neighbour caught them stealing.

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Ganatra is a retired teacher and said she got the courage to check out the commotion in her sister’s flat and the presence of mind to prevent her neighbour from getting cut by a chopper, from her late father, who was a freedom fighter.

The senior citizen, who lives alone in her first floor apartment at Kachchi Lohana building in Matunga (east), said her sister had locked the flat and gone to their native village in Gujarat so she had the apartment’s keys, when the accused broke into the flat.

“Around 8.30pm, I heard movement on the second floor. I did not pay attention at first, but a few minutes later, when I heard the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor, I realised something was amiss,” said Ganatra.

We called out for a response, but there was pin-drop silence. The next moment, four men, two of them carrying choppers, came charging towards us. They threw a jute bag on my face, but I managed to pull it off,” Ganatra said. “When one of them tried to attack Thakkar, I pulled her away, but she got a cut on her hand.”

Ganatra said she tried to block their way, but they hit her on her wrist and escaped. The neighbours and locals responded quickly, she said. “They were caught by the locals and the police.”

Ganatra said this is the first incident of housebreaking in their building. “I am proud that I could help get the culprits caught.”