Travelling on the beautiful NH 44 stretch in Adilabad during the dead of the night, or being stranded on it for some reason, could be fraught with risks as was found out by a lorry driver duo in the small hours of Monday. A gang of five people injured and robbed the two man crew of a lorry which had broken down about 1 km from Lingatla village in Neredigonda mandal.
Md. Asif, the second driver of the lorry from Nuhu Mewat in Haryana, told The Hindu that he was asleep in the cabin along with driver Zakeer Hussain in the lorry which had broken down a few hours earlier while moving towards Nirmal. At around 3 a.m., the duo was jolted awake by five unknown persons who broke the left windscreen of the lorry and gained forcible entry into the cabin.
The assailants, who also arrived in a lorry from the opposite direction, caused injuries on the abdomen of Hussain with a knife before stealing Rs. 6,000 and his cell phone. The second driver was injured on his knee as he jumped out of the cabin to escape the assailants.
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Mr. Asif said the highway patrol maintained by the road concessionaire was hardly of any help in informing the police of the incident. The patrolmen instead revealed that the offenders had even robbed travellers of a car on gun point.
On coming to know of the incident later in the day, Adilabad Assistant Superintendent of Police D. Joel Davis began inquiries into the veracity of the incident. Neredigonda police is investigating the case.