'Tenants' take woman to bank at knifepoint

PANCHKULA: Veena Verma, 55, a resident of Zirakpur was robbed of jewellery and cash worth Rs 2 lakh. She was made to sign two blank cheques and her ATM cards were snatched on Friday by three unidentified youths. The youths had entered her house in the garb of prospective tenants. An FIR was registered at the Zirakpur police station on Saturday.
Veena in her complaint to the police said, “I had given an advertisement for renting out my house.On Friday, I got a call from someone saying that they wanted to see my house. Then three youths, one of who was turbaned came to my house on a bike. Once inside, they asked for some water.”
She added, “When I returned to the drawing room, I found that two of the youths had gone outside the house, while the turbaned youth had latched the door shut. The youth took out a knife and threatened me that he would kill me if I didn’t part with the valuables in the house.” According to the police complaint, the woman gave the youth a diamond necklace and Rs 20,000 in cash. “The youth then called one of his accomplices and they both forcibly got two blank cheques signed from me and also took my ATM cards. They then forcibly drove me to the bank in Sector 10 to encash the cheques and withdraw money from the ATM,” Veena told police. But when the youths got to know that she had lied about having an account in the bank, they took her to an isolated road and thrashed her.
The woman then told the youths that she had an account in an Ambala bank. It was then that the youths decided to take her to the Ambala bank.Near Zirakpur T-point, as the signal turned red, Veena managed to escape from the car.