There is little connection between dacoits looting inmates of a house at knifepoint in Rukmini Enclave of Alwal a few weeks ago and burglary in five flats in Dolfin Estate of Miyapur four days ago.
Yet, there are security lessons to be learnt from the two crimes committed by different gangs. The house looted by dacoits in Alwal has a compound wall and a steel gate. Since it was located in a remote corner of the sparsely populated colony, the house owner made it secure by erecting strong iron grills for all the windows. That didn’t prevent the dacoits from sneaking in. They didn’t break open the main door or bend the grills to gain entry to the house as was done by other violent property offender gangs such as Kanjarbhat or Parthi. They quietly gained entry inside by removing window grills of the house.
Easy job
Investigators found that the grills were not embedded in the wooden frame of the window. This made the job of the gang easier. “Using a screwdriver, even a school child can remove the grills within a few minutes and the dacoits did the same,” the police said. If the grills were implanted deep into the wooden frame, it would have taken longer time for the dacoits to remove them. Any sound generated in the process could have alerted the occupants of the house, they felt. In fact, some gangs started targeting houses that have window grills not fixed properly. The burglary in five flats on the third floor of Dolfin Estate, which has 120 flats in two blocks, too brings to the fore some basic security flaws. The Block-B, where the burglars struck, had a watchman.
He was absent for four consecutive days, but no alternative management was made, the Miyapur police maintained. Naturally, the burglars went up the third floor during daytime without any scrutiny. The complex had intercom facility, but it was done away with reportedly due to cost of maintenance. Interestingly, soon after the offence, occupants of the flats decided not only to revive the intercom facility, but also install surveillance cameras on the complex premises to keep a tab on suspects.
Plans are afoot to erect a barbed wire fencing to be run with solar energy on the compound wall. As some thieves were breaking locks or latches of doors easily, the owner of one of the burgled flats got a central lock installed. But that was not embedded in the door, and came off when the burglars used mild force.
