Armed gang loots bungalow

Armed youths broke into the Joka bungalow of a New Market jewellery storeowner early on Tuesday, tied him up along with his wife and looted cash and jewellery.

After the gang left, the middle-aged couple managed to untie themselves in their bedroom on the first floor of their 15-cottah home. They woke up their daughter, who was in a bedroom on the ground floor, and called the police.

The ground floor of the bungalow, which has a swimming pool in the compound, is rented out for shooting television serials. It is located in an area — a lane off Diamond Harbour Road, opposite IIM Calcutta — that was added to the Calcutta police’s jurisdiction on September 1.

“We were woken up around 3.30am by the sound of banging on our bedroom door. Five youths came in and one of them pointed a gun at me. He threatened to slit my throat if I tried to resist them,” recounted Meera Sadnani.

Her husband Mohan was hit on the head with a rod by another member of the gang.

The youths had scaled a 7ft-high boundary wall to enter the property. “They wrapped towels around the barbed wires on top of the boundary walls to prevent injury,” said an officer.

The quintet broke the glass pane on the main door of the bungalow. “One of them must have reached inside to unlock the door. The youths then walked straight to the first floor,” added the officer.

The couple’s daughter Sandhya, in her 20s, did not hear the dacoits.

The gang banged the door of Mohan and Meera’s bedroom so hard that its bolt slid down. After entering the room, they tied the couple’s hands at the back.

“They also gagged us. The keys to the almirahs were lying on a table. They opened the almirahs and took away Rs 1.5 lakh and jewellery,” said Meera. The family did not specify how much the ornaments were worth.

“Gang members grabbed my earrings and also took away our mobile phones and laptop, which were on the table,” she added.

The family has been living in the bungalow for 15 years.

The family’s pet Great Dane had been let loose for the night on the sprawling grounds around the bungalow but did not bark. A help, who was in the outhouse, also did not realise that the house was being robbed. The gang left after around 45 minutes.