'Engineers' loot Ghaziabad businessman's house

Four unidentified armed dacoits, posing as IGL Engineers, looted cash, jewellery and other valuables valued about Rs.5 lakh from a businessman's residence here Tuesday.

The crime occurred Tuesday afternoon in the Raj Nagar residential locality.

The police said at about 1.30 p.m., four dacoits under the pretext of repairing the LPG pipe line of IGL barged into house number R 9/83 in Raj Nagar.

Armed with pistols and knives, they tied the hands and legs of businessman Sanjay Singh's wife Renu and his mother Asha Rani with cords and confined them to a room.

Thereafter, they took all the valuables available in the house, including 100 to 120 grams of jewellery and Rs.25,000 in cash and escaped after remaining there for about half-an-hour.

They even enquired from Renu whether an amount Rs.70 lakh was in the house as they had learnt, whereupon Sanjay's wife said she did not know of any such money.

Renu said the four had approached her Aug 8, saying they were engineers from IGL. When they enquired about gas leak complaint, she feigned ignorance.

They again came Aug 11 and asked her to remove the meter from the kitchen and instal it outside the house, saying it will avoid entry into the kitchen. The quartet said they will come the next day.

She gave them her mobile number, asking them to call before coming.

Tuesday, they came at about 1.30 p.m. when a maid was cleaning the house. Seeing the maid, they told her they needed a copper pipe to shift the meter from the kitchen and will return after buying it from the market.

They came after half-an-hour when the maid had left. Finding only the two women, they overpowered them and looted the house.

Before leaving the house, they removed a camera that captured the presence of any intruder.

A vegetable vendor later told Renu the dacoits had come in a white coloured car. Incidentally, the mobile phone from which they had called Renu was still functional.

SP City Shiv Hari Meena said: "A case has been registered and the police are trying to nab the criminals. The call details of the mobile phone used in the crime are being tracked."