‘Brave’ couple waiting for Rs 20,000 reward

BHOPAL: A local court here on Saturday sentenced two persons to thirteen years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2015 armed robbery case. Both the accused had snatched a woman’s gold chain and were chased down and intercepted by the husband of the woman.
However, the accused had fired gunshots and fled the scene. The then home minister and local MLA Babulal Gaur had visited the couple -R K Gupta, a retired BHEL employee and Saroj Gupta -and appreciated their bravery.The next day, in a press conference, the police had even declared a reward of Rs 10,000 each for the couple. However, the couple is still waiting for it.
Speaking to TOI, R K Gupta said, “We have still not received the reward announced by the police. The announcement was made at a press conference by a senior police officer.” In her complaint to the police, Saroj Gupta, 63, wife of R K Gupta stated that on August 28, 2015, she along with her husband had gone to Shukrawara vegetable market in their car. On their way back to their home in B Sector Indrapuri at around 9.30 pm, two bike-borne accused tried to overtake them on the ITI Road.
The pillion rider pushed his hand through window pane and snatched gold chain which Saroj was wearing. The accused then fled the scene, but were chased down by her husband who hit their bike from back. Sensing that they would be caught, one of the accused took out a gun and fired shots in the air.
They then fled leaving their bike. Later, locals rounded up the accused and handed them over to police. Additional district and sessions judge Bhubhaskar Yadav also imposed a fine of Rs 23,000 on the accused Rahul Rathore, 30, and Himalaya Pawar, 28, both residents of Betul.