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A case of a major dacoity was reported from the Sakhigopal area in Puri district late on Friday night with cash and jewelleries worth lakhs of rupees being looted from an elderlyAbout 10 dacoits barged into the ground floor of a two-storied building owned by elderly person, Jadab Nayak, at around 2.00 am and tied tenant Gadadhar Rath and his wife Kalyani with rope after awakening them from sleep. They broke open a cupboard and looted cash of Rs 40,000 and more than 40 grams of gold jewelleries.
The criminals then moved up to the first floor where the house owner and his family were sleeping. They looted around 200 grams of gold and 500 grams of silver ornaments and some cash. The loot operation lasted around 40 minutes at gunpoint. A daughter of the house owner said, “While the looters were approaching the top floor, we tried to call police. After they broke the main door, I threw my mobile phone from our balcony to the garden out of fear. They managed to capture us and threatened to kill our parents and children.”
“Two of the miscreants were speaking in Odia and the others were talking in Hindi but not fluently. We appealed to them to take away everything but spare us. They tied everyone with rope, thrashed me and looted all the gold jewelleries that I had worn and from my bag,” she said. Being informed, police reached the house and initiated investigation into the incident on Saturday morning.