Days after four masked men barged into the house of an elderly couple in the upscale Florence Elite society in Gurgaon’s Sector 57, and allegedly robbed a 64-year-old woman after holding her hostage and gagging her mouth, police have arrested three accused in the case. Two of the accused had worked as labourers at the couple’s house recently, while the third was formerly famous for uploading TikTok videos, said police.
The accused – Mohammad Anjar, Najimul and Hasim Ansari – were arrested from Ullawas village Wednesday by the crime branch, said police.
“The two labourers had noticed that the complainant had paid for labour work in Rs 2,000 currency denomination notes. The labourers thought they could get their hands on a large sum if they planned a loot bid. They were aware that the couple lived alone. So, the main accused, Ansari, hatched a plan to rob them and roped in four others,” said ACP (crime) Preet Pal.
“Ansari called his friend Najimul, who was based in Mumbai, to carry out the robbery. Najimul used to upload videos on social media platform Tiktok and earn money. After Tiktok was shut down, he lost his source of income. He agreed to join the loot bid. A total of five accused have been identified and efforts are on to arrest their accomplices,” said the ACP.
DCP (East) Virender Vij said, “One accused, Najimul, has a criminal record with four cases registered in Maharashtra. We are verifying this. The two accused had recently worked at the house as labourers and abruptly stopped coming for work a few days ago, which aroused suspicion, and they were arrested.”
Police said they recovered an iron rod from the accused.
According to police, the incident took place around 3.30 am on Tuesday when the woman and her 67-year-old husband were asleep. Police said the accused – carrying a rod and a screwdriver – allegedly entered the house from the rear door, which was open due to renovation work.
“The accused claimed that they used these tools instead of a knife or a gun to evade checking by the police and if caught, they could claim that they were labourers,” said a police officer, adding that they recovered an iron rod from the accused.
In the FIR, the complainant, Rama Sharma, had stated between 3.30 am and 4.30 am, four men had entered the house and robbed her.
“They had covered their faces with cloth. Two of them pounced on me and started asking me where the money was. They threatened to kill me. They suffocated me with their hands. They told me that they had tied my husband upstairs. I tried to make noise but they tied my face, hands and mouth using clothes. They forcefully took my gold bangles and my phone and pushed me to the bathroom. After a few minutes, they took me upstairs forcefully and searched the upper room. In the meantime, they heard some noise and ran away,” she stated in the FIR.
The woman’s husband, Ashok Sharma, 67, the managing director of a shipping firm, told The Indian Express, “The entire ordeal lasted over 90 minutes. My wife suffered injuries and was in trauma and had to be taken to a hospital. She has been discharged… I was asleep on the first floor at the time of the incident and I am fortunate that my life has been saved. The intention of the accused was to loot the money from the safe and murder me. They left behind an iron rod. My wife was on the ground floor. The accused held her hostage and gagged her and locked her in the bathroom. They told her, ‘humne buddhe ko baand diya hai (We have tied up the old man)’.”
He added, “My wife told them to take whatever they wanted. They dragged her to the bedrooms upstairs looking for me. Intelligently, my wife showed them to two other rooms which were empty and she pretended not to know where I was. The robbers got spooked and assumed that I may have gone outside and would raise an alarm and they fled. After they left, my wife woke me up and we locked ourselves in and called the police. We were scared. Initially we were unable to connect to the police, so we called a friend, who called a PCR. The police then arrived and offered help.”