Traumatised Dwarka family’s night of terror

FIVE dacoits went on a looting spree in Dwarka on July 4 at 2:30 in the morning. These unidentified persons broke into the house of a garment exporter Praveen Bhargava, 35, at Sector 8. Praveen, who was asleep with his wife and five-year-old son, was hit on the head.
The dacoits came fully armed — two of them had daggers and the other two pistols.One of them hit Praveen on the head and back with a dagger. They then asked for almirah keys which Praveen’s wife Bina Bhargava, immediately handed over to them. After this they tied the mouths and hands of all the three victims. They took out everything from the locker.
Recalls the shell-shocked Praveen, “For three hours, from 2:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. the dacoits were busy in ransacking the whole house. They plundered each and every thing. They smoked and spitted betel leaves everywhere. They took away my mobile, jewellery and cash worth Rs.2lakh.�
The police was called in the morning who took the bleeding Praveen to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital for bandage. Praveen has sustained injury on head and back. Adds inconsolable Bina Bhargava, “We had returned from Lucknow four days back after attending a function at my parent’s place. For the function we had taken out the jewellery from the locker. Nothing happened when the house was locked. Now everything is gone.�
Praveen shifted six years back to Sector 8 which is a residential area having individual plots and houses. Says Praveen, “When I shifted here, there was hardly any construction around. I was the only resident in the nearby area. However, robbery happened for the first time in six years.�
Praveen’s next door neighbour, Joginder Pal Vinayak, who shifted here two years back, says, “Only Praveen with his family was residing in the whole lane. When we shifted, he and his family were the only support for us, and this gave us courage to shift here. Now with this incident we are also very scared.�
Rajeev Jain, secretary of the Residents Welfare Association of Sector 8 says, “There are 909 plots out of which around 80 families are residing scattered all over the sector. Most of the plots are with financers and property dealers.
Many plots are under construction and labourers are residing in these unfinished houses. They have no proper identity, and these people even don’t know their landlords. This makes the area susceptible to robbery.�
According to SHO of Dwarka Police Station, Umed Singh, two policemen used to patrol the area. The number will be increased, he assured. Meanwhile, investigation to identify the criminals is going on.