KOCHI: The events of January 24, 2006, remain vivid in the minds of 45-year-old Unnikrishnan Vellat and his family. What unfolded that night was something they had only heard about in the news until then.
Now, as the ‘Kuruva’ gangs from ‘thiruttu’ villages terrorise people in the state, Unnikrishnan recalls how his family successfully resisted a similar gang’s burglary attempt years ago.
“How can I forget that day? I remember each moment from those wee hours when thieves broke into my wife’s ancestral house,” says the businessman.
“What surprised me was that even my mother-in-law was at the forefront in filmy style to drive the five-member gang out.”
The action-packed story starts at a traditional tharavadu near Gandhi Square in Tripunithura. On January 23, 2006, a group of Tamil men, pretending to be daily wagers, approached the house. They offered to clean the pond in the compound, but the family declined.
It was only later that the family realised the group had not been seeking work but surveying the house for a planned burglary that night.
That night, Unnikrishnan, his wife Sujitha, and their five-month-old daughter were sleeping in one bedroom. His sister-in-law Suvija, her husband Nandakumar, and their son occupied another, while his mother-in-law Vijayalakshmi and grandmother-in-law Ammini Amma were in separate rooms near the living room.
During the daytime recce, the thieves had, apparently, identified an exit door of the puja room as their point of entry. At about 2am on January 24, a five-member gang, including a youth barely 18 years old, broke into the puja room, entered an adjacent room, and stole valuables from an almirah.
“Later, they entered the room where my mother-in-law was asleep. As she woke up, they made some weird noise, like dogs howling, probably to stun her,” says Unnikrishnan. “As she got up, one guy snatched her gold chain. Though in panic, my mother-in-law screamed for help.”
Nandakumar and Suvija rushed out of their room and confronted the five intruders in the living room. Nandakumar pounced and pinned down one of them, but was attacked by the others. “Three were attacking Nandakumar, while the youth rummaged through the house to steal valuables,” says Unnikrishnan.
Soon, Suvija and Vijayalakshmi joined the action. “Meanwhile, the youth entered my wife’s grandmother’s room. She was unable to resist — she was 86 years old. He snatched her gold chain,” he says.
Unnikrishnan initially thought the noise outside was caused by a stray dog that had entered the compound. He asked his wife, Sujitha, to check.
“She went out of the room, and immediately rushed back. She was trying to tell me something, but was choking up,” Unnikrishnan recalls.
“I clearly remember her grabbing a Nycil talcum powder container in our room and rushing out to hurl it at someone! That’s when I realised something was wrong.”
Sujitha laughs as she recalls the “powder attack”. “I was in a frightened, frenzied state,” she says. “I remember the gang members making ghoulish noises and faces to terrorise us.”
By then, Unnikrishnan entered the scene. “The youngster in the gang attacked me. I recalled all the kalari lessons I learnt in my teenage years, and kicked him in the stomach – a marma point under his navel,” he chuckles.
“What followed was a melee like a Priyadarshan film climax! The whole family was fighting the thieves, who eventually fled. Some neighbours attempted to chase them, but they managed to escape.”
Top police officers arrived at the spot within 10 minutes. “We learnt from them that the same gang had struck another house in Kanangulara and that the police had been patrolling the area,” says Unnikrishnan.
The police commended the family’s resistance, especially the women’s role in thwarting the theft. A few days later, three gang members were arrested. They were from a ‘thiruttu’ village near Salem. The police also recovered the gold chain that was stolen.
“Two of the accused, after getting bail, absconded again. As part of the legal process, we had to appear in court,” says Unnikrishnan. “The accused was represented by a highly efficient lawyer, making it seem as if we were the accused! We eventually stopped pursuing the case.”