After managing to evade the long arm of the law for over 30 years, three proclaimed offenders in a dacoity case were finally arrested by the police on Monday.
In the case that became infamous in the late 1980s, over a dozen armed men had laid siege to the house of a prominent moneylender, Swami Ram, in Punhana, and decamped with 1 kg of gold, 150 kg of silver and some cash. They also shot his neighbour Jagdish Patel.
Nuh police arrested three of those accused from U.P.’s Bulandshahar on Monday. The moneylender, Swami Ram’s, neighbour Jagdish Patel was shot in the neck during the dacoity.
As part of its special campaign against proclaimed offenders and those who have jumped bail, the police stumbled upon the records of the three accused in the 33-year-old dacoity case in Pinangwan village.
“The accused — Yaseen, Babu and Manjoor Ahmed — were declared proclaimed offenders in 1988 and were leading normal lives in their respective villages. Two of the accused were held soon after the dacoity in 1987. The other 10 accused are now dead,” said Superintendent of Police (Nuh) Narendra Bijarniya.
Recounting the horror, Naresh Singla, one of the sons of Mr. Ram, told The Hindu that around 30 armed dacoits had laid siege to their house at 10 p.m.
“Some construction work was going on in our housea few of the dacoits climbed up the terrace via the scaffolding. They then opened the door to allow their accomplices inside. When the villagers tried to raise an alarm, the dacoits opened fire at them. One of our neighbours was killed and many sustained bullet and shrapnel injuries,” said Mr. Singla, 53.
An undergraduate then, Mr. Singla recalled how there were no means of communication and the police reached only in the morning. The police station, he said, was around 10 km from their house. “Two men were arrested, but the rest managed to flee. Though the dacoits came from Uttar Pradesh, we suspected that someone known to us was involved. The entire conspiracy was never unravelled though,” The police recovered only six kg of silver then.
The family was pushed into huge financial distress, said Mr. Singh, adding that they had to sell sold their landholdings. to overcome the crisis. Mr. Singh, a businessman, said the arrests now meant very little to them.
