In a bid to put pressure on the police, who had assured that they would solve the murder case in 72 hours, Balawala residents again blocked the Dehradun-Haridwar national highway on Sunday. They alleged that despite Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s deadline the police had failed to crack the case. Angry locals blocked the national highway and demanded that the case be referred to the CBI because police is unable to crack the case.
Talking to The Pioneer, Agriculture Officer Surendra Singh Thapliyal, who lost his 23-year-old son in the armed burglary said that he got up at 4 am and saw one person with an iron rod roaming in his dining hall and informed his wife. She then rushed to close the latch of her bedroom but could not succeed because the thief forcefully entered their bedroom. When Thapliyal tried to catch hold of him, the four other persons, who were hiding in other room, rushed and attacked him and his wife mercilessly with an iron rod. Meanwhile his mother, who was woken up due to the commotion and was unaware of the thieves, was also attacked with the rod.
later Thapliyal’s 23-year-old son Ankit, who was sleeping in the mezzanine area, came down to gauge the situation and saw his three family members distraught and covered in blood. He then confronted the thieves. Meanwhile his mother rushed outside the house by opening a door near the stairs and hid behind the bushes within the campus but the thieves brought her back. Meanwhile her son (Ankit) was busy in a scuffle with the thieves who then shot him and he succumbed to his injuries. Then they dumped Ankit inside the toilet.
Thapliyal’s wife called her tenant, who too was attacked by the thieves. The tenant’s kids were instructed by the thieves to keep mum then or else they would harm their mother. Meanwhile they also took away her jewelry and left with a warning that if she shouts then she would be killed as well.
They ran away by scaling the boundary wall, which has around two feet iron fencing, with the help of grill, which they had removed earlier from the window of the main entrance and entered into the house. While decamping with the cash and gold ornament one thieves asked the family to take Ankit to the hospital because his condition was very critical. Four thieves scaled the wall because their foot prints with blood stains were imprinted over the wall while one of them climbed up the wall with help of the grill but was stuck in the fencing and received deep wound because human flesh stuck was found on the fence.
At the protest, villagers were shouting slogan and demanding a CBI enquiry on it because the police has failed to crack the case. They alleged that police is adopting lackadaisical approach in it investigation other they would have solved the case.