SAMBALPUR: Showing scant regard for policing, a group of six unidentified miscreants held the family of an ex-army men hostage at gunpoint and looted gold jewellery and cash from their house in Sana Dumermunda village within Govindpur police limits in Sambalpur early on Friday.
The retired army man Saroj Kumar Naik was out of town when the incident took place. While Naik’s is a two-storey building, the top floor, is occupied by multiple tenants including a jeweller, engineer, teacher, and a supervisor residing in three single rooms.
The robbers broke into those rooms and forced the tenants there to hand over their jewellery, cash and mobile phones.
Subsequently, they targeted the ground floor where the retired army man’s wife was alone. Terrorising her at gunpoint, they broke the almirah and took gold jewellery including earrings and other items weighing about 25 grams. Later, on Friday, wife of the ex-army man, Jaikumari Naik filed a complaint at Govindpur police station.
From preliminary investigation, police found that the gang came to the house in search of the jeweller staying there as tenant. Although his room was locked, the robbers broke in and stole around 45 gram of gold from his bag. The robbers tied the hands and feet of the victims and looted 85 gram of gold and `40,000 cash from the house.
SDPO of Kuchinda Amitav Panda said, “The gang entered through the rooftop and broke multiple doors, including the door in the ground. We are analysing CCTV footage from nearby areas but the house did not have cameras.”
So far, police have detained two people who were often found roaming near the house before the robbery. This incident is the latest in a series of similar robberies in Hemgir, Laikera and nearby areas over the past three months. “The gang’s modus operandi suggests they are only interested in cash and gold,” the SDPO added.