Mangalore: Robbers threaten, slap elderly woman, open fire

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (NM/SP)

Updated

Mangalore, Jul 9: Two unidentified persons, said to be robbers, came on a bike and threatened an elderly lady and fired gun shots. The incident occured at Devipura road, Talapady here on Tuesday July 9.

Police sources said that of the two men, one entered the house of the lady identified as Sadhana, while the other stayed behind near the bike. Sadhana was alone at home at the time of the incident.

The men had covered their faces with masks. The man who entered the house allegedly demanded gold from Sadhana and reportedly told her to call her husband over landline. When Sadhana told them that she would make a call by using her cell phone, and acted like removing her cell phone kept on the television set, while trying to flee from the front door, the stranger pulled at her hair and slapped her twice, it is said. Sadhana suffered injury to her temple because of this assault. He then brandished a gun and opened fire.

On hearing her screams, her husband, Keshav, who was in the couple's old house located close by, rushed to the spot. Seeing him and other neighbours, the men fled the scene.

Police sources said that the man had used a toy gun, but a neighbour claimed that the sound of the gunshot was too loud for a toy.

Keshav is a retired officer of agriculture department.

Ullal police arrived at the spot, however, no case was registered.

Mistaken identity?

It is guessed that the miscreants had raided this house because of mistaken notion. Actually they were thought to be searching for the house of a person named Jayaprakash in the same locality, and had also enquired with the locals, Venugopal, who works for Devipura temple, and Sridhar, who was repairing the road, for directions to Jayaprakash’s home, it is gathered. In all likelihood, they attacked the house of Keshav, wrongly thinking that it belongs to Jayaprakash.

Jayaprakash from Talapady is employed in a foreign country, while his wife is a central government employee. When Jayaprakash was on a family visit during June this year, some strangers had called him and demanded protection money of ten lac rupees. They also followed up by making more calls, seeking payment. Jayaprakash left the country by the end of June, but the family received a call on July 9, hiking the amount to be paid to Rs 25 lac, it is said.

It is learnt that Jayaprakash had called his wife and asked her to be alert and take precautions, because of these threat calls. The fact that the call and the assault happened on the same day has given a strong clue that the attackers chose the wrong family. It is said that Jayaprakash or his family members have not filed any police complaint in this regard because of busy schedule and pressure of work.

As the call was made to the cell phone of Jayaprakash, which only a few of his friends knew of, when he was in Talapady, gave an indication that the persons who want to extract money from him are known to the family. It is said that Jayaprakash continued to receive threat calls even after leaving India, to his number in his country of his employment.