|
Brave father and son show the way,
take on 40 armed dacoits who have been creating terror in
Thane and Navi Mumbai Posted On Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Sarabjeet Singh Bhullar, 50, (left) and his son Baljeet, 25,
fought off 40 dacoits for 25 minutes and forced them to
flee. Bhullar Sr has got 11
stitches on his head as a result of the assault by the
dacoits, and his son has bruises on his hands.
You might think this is a scene straight out of a Hindi
film. While 40 dacoits are trying to break a window grill
that would lead them into a
bungalow, the 50-year-old house owner and his 25-year-old
son hold on to it with all the power at their command; 25
minutes later, the onslaught of the thieves still on, the
owner pulls out his final weapon of resistance -- the kirpan
-- and threatens to kill. The sight of the kirpan so
frightens the dacoits that they beat a quick retreat.
Belapur resident Sarabjeet Singh Bhullar and his son Baljeet
fought off 40 dacoits for 25 minutes in this fashion on
Tuesday morning and finally
forced them to flee, Amar Jadhav, deputy commissioner of
police (zone I), Navi Mumbai, said.
Police said the dacoits belonged to the same gang that has
carried out a series of dacoities in Thane and Navi Mumbai
in the last one month.
According to police, at around 3.30 am, Bhullar Sr and Jr,
who live with six other family members - their wives and
four children of Baljeet - in their 1,800 sq ft bungalow in
Sector 8B, heard loud thuds from near the window close to
their main door.When they opened the window and looked out,
they saw 40 men had entered their compound and were hurling
huge stones at the window grill in an attempt to break it.
Fearing the grill would give way, the father-son duo held on
to it with all their might, while their wives began making
frantic calls to the cops and their relatives."In order to
stop this resistance, the dacoits
began to target us. They hit us with bamboo sticks and
stones," Bhullar Sr said. While he was hit behind his left
ear by a big stone, the son
was struck on the head several times and on the knees. They
still refused to budge.The one thing that kept them going,
Bhullar Jr
said, was the thought of family. "We were sure that if the
dacoits entered the home, they would kill us all. They
seemed capable of doing anything," he said.The struggle
continued for 25 minutes, police
said, but the neighbours, woken by the sounds, did not help.
Sensing that the thugs would not retreat, Bhullar Sr,
bleeding and in considerable pain, drew out his kirpan and
threatened to kill
the dacoits if they did not go away. "I recited our holy
prayer and drew out my kirpan. I was serious about going
after them. I did not have an option, really," he noted.
Almost unbelievably, the kirpan did the trick: the dacoits,
looking scared, decided to retreat.Bhullar Sr now has nine
stitches behind his ears and his son has bruises on his
hands and knees.Ramrao Wagh, commissioner of Navi Mumbai
police said: "The Bhullars were very brave throughout the
ordeal. But I wish the neighbours had also come out to
help."The cops arrived soon after, but by that time the
dacoits were out of sight.
The gang then went to Sector 8A, barged into the
ground-floor homes of two families, and walked away with
jewellery and cash. However, a police team, on the chase,
managed to arrested two of the gang members: Ambadas Pawar,
40, and Deepak Pawar, 25.One of the two houses robbed by the
gang belonged to Kamlaben Mehta, 73. Mehta, who was at home
with her daughter Manjula, 44, said more than 20
dacoits broke open the door of their home with a huge
boulder and took away valuables.Soon after, they broke open
the neighbouring
house, which belongs to her other daughter, Anita Bhatkar.
The dacoits took away cash and valuables worth Rs 2 lakh
from the two houses, police said.With
Thanks to Harry who forwarded us this news as well to
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?Page=article§id=
15&contentid=20070516021924531215e4be2
|
|
