NT Reporter
Vasco
The Nayak family of Baina, Vasco went through a traumatic ordeal early on Tuesday when a group of seven dacoits broke through the kitchen window and entered their sixth-floor flat in Chamundi Arcade. The attack, which lasted around 35 minutes, resulted in theft and assault.
Flat owner Sagar Nayak was hospitalised, and three women, including a minor, were injured.
Sagar’s wife, Harsha Nayak, who was also beaten, described the moments when the armed group stormed their home. She said the intruders arrived at around 2.30am, breaking the rear grills before entering the flat. They were armed with iron and aluminium rods. Harsha said they broke open the bedroom door and began assaulting the family, attacking her husband on the head and injuring him seriously. She said they slapped and kicked her daughter and pushed her mother off the bed while demanding locker keys and money, threatening to kill them with a knife.
Harsha said that when Sagar refused to hand over the keys, the assailants hit him again on the head with a rod and kicked him in the stomach. She said they pleaded with the intruders not to harm them and asked them to take whatever they wanted.
The group took cash, silver utensils, her gold ornaments, bangles and rings totally worth Rs 45 lakh. She said the situation unfolded so quickly that they had no time to react or call for help, and when they tried, the dacoits beat them with rods and kicked them with boots.
When asked whether she recognised anything about the attackers, Harsha said they spoke in a tone that sounded like Bihari. She added that they were masked, wore helmets, and all appeared to be young.
Sagar’s brother, Prasad Nayak, said the attackers seemed aware that the family ran an ice cream parlour, as they took ice cream and water bottles from the fridge. He said footage later revealed that one of the intruders attempted to steal their car. The family told reporters that the colony has CCTV cameras only at the front entrance, with none at the rear, which the intruders appeared to know. They said this suggested that the dacoits had surveyed the area beforehand and used the back route to enter and escape by jumping over the compound wall.
The attackers were seen entering the flat around 2.30am and leaving the colony at 3.05am.
Sagar, who had been tied and thrown into the balcony, managed to shout for help despite a bleeding head injury.
A friend, Bholenath Halwai, who lives in a nearby colony, heard the calls and alerted the police.
