A gang of armed dacoits committed robbery at retired High Court judge Pradyumna Kumar Mohanty’s house here at Abhinav Bidanasi under the Markat Nagar police station at the wee hours of Saturday.

Mohanty is currently heading the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Pipili gangrape and murder incident of 2012.

The dacoits after tying the 70-year-old Mohanty, his wife and daughter-in-law in a room broke open the shelves and decamped with cash and jewellery worth over Rs 50 lakh, police said, adding that the dacoits escaped by Mohanty’s car that was later traced near Rasulgarh on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, 20 km from here.

“More than seven to eight persons entered into my bedroom at around 3.15 am and woke me up demanding cash and jewellery pointing knives at me. When my wife woke up, they tied our hands and legs threatening us at gunpoint not to make any noise. Inquiring about other members in the house, they brought our ailing daughter-in-law from the first floor and also held her captive in our room,” Mohanty said. All of them were speaking in Hindi with Telugu accent, Mohanty said. 

While Mohanty’s younger son stays at Bangalore, his elder son Haripada, an advocate, had gone to Brahmapur on Friday. Incidentally, Mohanty’s domestic help, a native of Brahmapur, was also not at work for last four days.

The police have detained the domestic help and are quizzing him, said city DCP Sanjib Arora, refusing to divulge the details now. “We have formed four teams to investigate the case and are hopeful to unravel it soon,” he said.

DGP Sanjeev Marik and Twin City Police Commissioner RP Sharma visited the spot and admitted that the incident has shamed the police and is a challenging one for them.