Amritsar family held hostage, robbed of ~17 lakh, jewellery

Amritsar,

Five armed persons, including a couple working as domestic help, robbed a garment trader after keeping him and his family as hostages in the posh White Avenue area here late Sunday evening.

The robbers thrashed and injured the trader, Ravi Arora, his daughter-in-law Heena (33) and granddaughter Kamaya (5). They tied them with chairs and covered their mouths with tapes before escaping with around Rs 17-lakh cash and jewellery worth lakhs besides two mobile phones. They fled the spot on their SUV, which was later recovered from Dhariwal in Gurdaspur district.

The incident came to light when Heena managed to untie her hands and called her husband Saurav Arora from the landline and informed him about the incident. Saurav had gone to out for a dinner when the incident took place. Ravi was later taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police Commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill said the investigation was on and a manhunt had been launched to nab the perpetrators.

The victim, Ravi Arora, said as the banks were closed, the entire sale of the garment showroom amounting to Rs 17 lakh was kept in the house. Arora said he tried contacting the police control room but got no response. He said the accused also tried to shoot him with his revolver but it was empty at that time.

Anil Dhawan, father-in-law of Saurav, said the family had recently hired domestic helpers, Santosh Joshi of Delhi (having origin in Nepal) and his wife Jyoti Joshi, through Varinder Kumar and his wife Anita, who used work there earlier.

“Santosh and his wife facilitated the entrance of other robbers. They first attacked Heena and her daughter. Later, they broke open the door of Ravi’s room and attacked him with a screw driver. Though Ravi tried to take out his licenced revolver in order to retaliate, the robbers overpowered him and snatched the weapon,” he added.

Dhawan said the robbers tied the duo with chairs and taped their mouths so that they could not scream for help. They opened the cupboards and took out the cash and jewellery. They also took the DVR and threw it in water and threatened to kidnap Kamaya before fleeing in their SUV.

The Police Commissioner, however, claimed that the suspects had been identified and raids were on to nab them. He said separate police teams had been formed to investigate and raid the suspected hideouts of the culprits. He hoped that they would be in the police net soon.