A 54-year-old woman was assaulted by four robbers who broke into her bungalow in Santa Cruz on Tuesday night.
A 54-year-old woman was assaulted by four robbers who broke into her bungalow in Santa Cruz on Tuesday night. The robbers failed to find valuables in the house, and two of them were nabbed by alert neighbours while they tried to flee.
According to the police, Mabel Arousio, a resident of the Wellington Colony in Santa Cruz (W), was waiting for her husband Hartmann when around 9.30pm four men entered the house through a window. Before she could raise an alarm, one of them hit her on the head with a wooden plank making her unconscious.
The robbers then ransacked the bungalow but could not find any jewellery or cash. “Since the couple stays alone and does not have children, they have kept their valuables in the bank safe,” said senior inspector Dilip Gaikwad of Santa Cruz police station, adding that as a safety measure, Hartmann even used to locked the door from outside, and Mabel, a housewife, would not leave the house until her husband returned. The Wellington Colony consists of several old bungalows. The Hartmanns have been staying in the house since 1950.
After searching the house for nearly half an hour, the robbers finally decided to take whatever they could get. They stuffed clothes in plastic bags and started fleeing.
However, a few locals who were out for their night walk saw the robbers behaving suspiciously and intercepted them. “They shoved us aside and began to run. We, however, managed to nab two of them,” said Jeetu Dhodia, who caught the two robbers with the help of a watchman. According to Dhodia, one of the two robbers who managed to flee was a minor boy aged about 12-13 years.
Hartmann, who runs a homeopathy clinic in Marol, returned at around 10 pm and rushed his wife to Nanavati Hospital. Mabel suffered a deep wound on the head but was said to be out of danger.
The arrested accused have been identified as Rakesh Kumar Shankar Tripathi, a resident of Pune and Azaruddin Iqbal Sheikh from Golibaar Road. A police team has been dispatched to Pune to trace the absconding accused.
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